As he prepares to defend his Wimbledon crown, Novak Djokovic explains why tennis will never take over his life

By Simon Briggs, Friday 19 June 2015

‘Just walk like this, enjoy,’ Novak Djokovic says. Our interview was supposed to be conducted on a tatty sofa underneath the eaves of the Campo Centrale, Rome’s main tennis arena. But Djokovic is sweating after a morning workout, his nostrils flaring as he pumps the air back into his chest, and he doesn’t want his muscles to stiffen. So we stride back and forth in the corridors under the stadium, a promenade that offers a glimpse into the crowded life of the world’s best tennis player.

One minute Djokovic is acknowledging the open-mouthed stares of a passing tour group, drawing a ripple of awe as he offers a cheery ‘buongiorno’. The next he is joshing with sleepy-eyed Stan Wawrinka, one of the few men with the power to disrupt his own precision-engineered game. He stops regularly to hinge forward at the hips and stretch his hamstrings. And all the while he is rattling away in English – one of five languages he speaks fluently – at such a rate that one of his answers runs to five minutes and almost 700 words.

‘I actually have some kind of project in my mind that will come to life sometime soon about Nikola Tesla,’ Djokovic blurts out, unexpectedly. ‘There is something big on the way. It’s all in the spirit of bringing awareness about how much he contributed to the civilisation of humankind. He was always very proud of his Serbian roots, and people don’t actually know that much about him. I am trying to make people understand – we have lights because of him. The alternative current makes it happen.’

Clearly, this is no ordinary sportsman. Wielding a racket has never been enough for Djokovic. When he first joined the tour, he was known for his japes and impressions of other players, which contributed to his early reputation as a pushy young punk. They also put people’s backs up in the locker room, which explains why he shelved his former persona – the Djoker – soon after his 20th birthday.