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Novak Djokovic is a Serbian tennis player, nicknamed “Djoker”, who holds the men’s record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. At 39, he won the 102nd title of his career in Beijing in October 2026, after reaching the Australian Open final, where he beat Jannik Sinner 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-finals.
At the 2026 Rolex Paris Masters, he beat Valentin Vacherot 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-1 in the first round to become the oldest player to win a match at the tournament. He has also won seven ATP Finals titles, a record, and the Olympic gold medal in Paris in 2024.
Djokovic has not announced his retirement, but he no longer commits beyond the next tournament. Asked at Roland-Garros in May 2026 whether he would return in 2027, he answered every question with “I don’t know”. In August, he said he may not return to Cincinnati.
Before the 2026 Paris Masters, tournament director Cédric Pioline told fans to make the most of him, saying it could be his last or second-to-last appearance in Paris.
24, the men’s record, level with Margaret Court’s all-time mark. He has won the Australian Open 10 times, Wimbledon seven times, the US Open four times and Roland-Garros three times. He is the only man to have won each major at least three times.
His last major title came at the 2023 US Open, where he beat Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the final. In 2021, he won the first three majors of the year, but Medvedev beat him 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in the US Open final, a match away from the calendar-year Grand Slam.
He came closest at the 2026 Australian Open, his 11th final in Melbourne, where Carlos Alcaraz beat him 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5. In his speech, he called Alcaraz’s achievement “legendary and historic”.
At Roland-Garros, 19-year-old Joao Fonseca came from two sets down to beat him 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 in the third round. At Wimbledon, he reached a record 15th semi-final, where Sinner beat him 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
At the US Open, Argentinian Mariano Navone beat him 7-6 (5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in his first Grand Slam first-round defeat since January 2006. Roger Federer still backs him to reach 25.
102, third on the all-time list behind Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103). He won his first title in Amersfoort in 2006 and his 100th in Geneva in May 2025.
In Athens in November 2025, he beat Lorenzo Musetti 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 for his 101st title and became the oldest ATP Tour champion. His 102nd came in Beijing, his seventh title there, when Alex de Minaur retired with Djokovic leading 7-6 (3), 0-1. He has now won a title in 21 consecutive seasons.
He also holds the record of 40 Masters 1000 titles and seven ATP Finals titles, the last of them in 2023, when he beat Sinner 6-3, 6-3 in the final.
Djokovic spent a record 428 weeks at No. 1 and finished a record eight seasons as year-end No. 1. At the 2026 Australian Open, he became the first player to reach 400 Grand Slam singles wins.
At Wimbledon in 2026, he passed Federer for the most match wins at the tournament, with 106. In Beijing, he moved past Rafael Nadal’s best unbeaten start at a single event and finished the week 34-0 in the Chinese capital.
Djokovic has not named it. After his US Open defeat, he said vomiting and cramping had followed him through almost every match of 2026. In Beijing in October, he said the problem was not stamina: “It’s something else. More related to health.”
On the eve of the Paris Masters, he told Tennis Majors that four months of physical problems had eased, and that he was close to a solution.
It depends on Paris. He started the week needing at least the semi-finals to qualify for Turin, after Jan-Lennard Struff beat him 6-7 (4), 7-5, 7-6 (5) in Basel, their first win in nine meetings.
After his first-round win in Paris, he answered “No” when asked whether the ATP Finals were his main motivation. He faces qualifier Rinky Hijikata next. He withdrew from the ATP Finals in 2024 and 2025.
Former Serbian player Viktor Troicki joined his coaching team in May 2026, and Djokovic explained the decision at Roland-Garros.
He worked with Marian Vajda from 2006 to 2022, Boris Becker from 2014 to 2016, Goran Ivanisevic from 2019 to 2024 and Andy Murray from November 2024 to May 2025.
In January 2026, Djokovic cut ties with the Professional Tennis Players Association, the union he co-founded with Vasek Pospisil in 2020, citing concerns over transparency and governance.
He has remained vocal on the sport’s organisation, and in May 2026 he discussed with Sinner the idea of a Grand Slam boycott over revenue sharing.
On the main measures (Grand Slam titles, weeks at No. 1, Masters 1000 titles, ATP Finals titles), Djokovic holds the record. “I do think what Novak’s done over the past 10 years, winning the majors, being consistent, finishing No. 1 for seven years, to me it’s a clear sign that he is the greatest of all time,” Pete Sampras said in 2021.
“I think mentally he’s the best player to ever play the game,” Alexander Zverev said the same year. Djokovic himself has called the debate disrespectful to those who played in previous eras.
Djokovic is not vaccinated against Covid-19. In January 2022, he was deported from Australia after his visa was revoked twice, and missed the Australian Open. For the same reason, he could not enter the United States for the 2022 US Open.
Asked by the BBC in February 2022 whether he was ready to miss tournaments to avoid the vaccine, he said: “Yes, that is the price that I’m willing to pay.” He returned to Melbourne in 2023 and won a 10th Australian Open title.
Yes. At the Paris 2024 Olympics, he beat Alcaraz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) in the final to win the singles gold. He had won bronze in Beijing in 2008.
Novak Djokovic was born on May 22, 1987, in Belgrade, then in Yugoslavia, which makes him 39. He has represented Serbia throughout his career, winning the Davis Cup in 2010 and the ATP Cup in 2020.
“Our country’s image has been really bad,” he told L’Équipe in 2014. “So I try to best represent my country, give a positive image, show that we are proud and hospitable.”
His wife is Jelena Djokovic, formerly Ristic. They met in high school, started dating in 2005 and married in July 2014 in Sveti Stefan, Montenegro. Their son Stefan was born in October 2014 and their daughter Tara in September 2017.
His father Srdjan is Serbian and his mother Dijana is Croatian. He has two younger brothers, Marko and Djordje, who also played professionally.
He picked up a racquet at four. In 1993, Jelena Gencic spotted him and coached him for six years, before he moved to Niki Pilic’s academy near Munich in 1999. His idol growing up was Pete Sampras.
Gno-vak Djo-ko-vitch. “Djo” sounds as in “Johnny”, “ko” as in “koala” and the final “c”, which carries an accent in Serbian, is pronounced “tch”. In his first name, “No” sounds as in “gnome” and “vak” as in “vacuum”.
His current ranking and statistics are on his ATP Tour profile, and he is on Instagram as djokernole.
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