Novak Djokovic’s connection with Spain is very special and goes far beyond the tremendous rivalry he has maintained for almost two decades with Rafael Nadal.. Nole had the Spanish former tennis player Pepe Imaz As a guru, he spends long periods training in Spain, his brother Marko lives in Spain and one of the most important people on his team, Carlos Gomez-Herrerais from Spain.
With all that clear, It is normal for Djokovic to understand and speak Spanish more than correctly. He even writes down the words he doesn’t understand to remember them later. These ties between Djokovic and Spain have one point in common: the province of Malaga, more specifically Marbella. Pepe Imaz, Carlos Gómez-Herrera and Marko Djokovic are based in Marbella, the city where Absent prepare many preseasons. In fact, the pandemic confinement also happened in Marbella.
“I love Marbella and there is nothing better in terms of climate in Europe, There is always sun and I love the energy that there is in Andalusia. Food, people, the character of people, It is something different from any part of Spain, like Madrid. The culture and lifestyle that it can offer,” Djokovic said a week ago, very close, very close, to Marbella.
He was speaking at the Martín Carpena in Malaga, just over half an hour by car from Marbella, in the hours before Serbia’s debut in the Davis Cup Finals. A few days later, he experienced one of his most painful defeats of this season. The 24-time Grand Slam champion missed three match points against Jannik Sinner and a while later he also lost the doubles match in the semifinals. Serbia was eliminated from Davis, the most important team competition in tennis and one of Nole’s great objectives in 2024.
Djokovic’s criticism of Spain’s monopoly
One day after his elimination, news broke that surely upset Djokovic’s attitude. The International Tennis Federation announced that the 2024 Finals will be held again in Malaga. Since the format was changed in 2019 with the revolution carried out by Gerard Piqué and Kosmos, all the Davis finals have been played in Spain, something that the most successful tennis player of all time does not like.
“That a country like Spain has been playing at home for four or five years is too much. This is a global competition and perhaps at least from the semi-finals it should be played with home and awaylike before,” Djokovic complained in an interview with the newspaper As.
“The fact that we have not played in Serbia for many years is not good. We do not give the people of Serbia the opportunity to see us play”
Novak Djokovic No. 1 in the world ranking
Madrid hosted the Davis Cup finals in 2019 and 2021 (in 2020 it was not held due to the pandemic) and since 2022 the venue has been Malaga. In addition to having the finals at home, Spain has played the last group and knockout stages at home. In fact, the Spanish team has not played away from home since they lost in Lille in September 2018. against France, still with the old format. Precisely on those dates was the last time that Serbia played in Davis in front of its audience.
“The fact that we haven’t played in Serbia for many years is not good,” Djokovic said in one of the press conferences he held last week in Malaga. “We don’t give the people of Serbia the opportunity to see us play, especially the younger ones.. Furthermore, I think that a home tie helps the Federation.”
Playing at home has always been a huge advantage in the Davis Cup and a headache for rivals. Although in the finals there have been many visitors who have emerged winners, The trips, the surface and having all the fans against you have determined countless series. However, with the new format all that is lost.
Always playing at home since 2019, Spain has only won one title since then, in 2019 and with Rafael Nadal as a big star. But in 2021 they were eliminated in the group stage, in 2022 they lost in the quarterfinals and in 2023 they have not even qualified for the final phase. It has been the end of a pretty tough year for Spanish tennis beyond the adventures of Carlos Alcaraz. In 2024, Spain will be local again and Djokovic’s Serbia will have to travel if it wants to succeed. At the moment, the new Davis cannot find the right place for him. And Spain, neither.
Nacho Encabo is a sports editor at Relevo, a specialist in tennis and the Olympic Games. Born in Madrid, he studied Journalism and Audiovisual Communication at the Rey Juan Carlos University and began as an intern in the sports section of El Mundo in 2011. Knowing German shortly after opened the doors of the dpa agency, where he worked as a special envoy to the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, the 2016 Euro Cup in France and the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In addition, adding Relay and the rest of his career, he has covered the four tennis Grand Slams, the Davis Cup , athletics world championships, Formula 1 Grand Prix and countless LaLiga and Champions League matches. He has also worked as a reporter at El Independiente and traveled to the Tokyo Olympics on the Spanish Olympic Committee team. …
2023-11-27 16:05:50
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