Elena Djokovic. “Tennis is not the world I belong to.”

This is the first time that he speaks in the French media. Until now, she has always refused interview requests, convinced that she would only be asked about her status as a husband, or at best a “wife”. It is difficult to meet him. we only had the interview date, exact time and meeting point a day before… half an hour before. “I’m 37 years old and I’m still very much searching for myself, so it would be difficult to say who I really am,” he answers the question of how he will introduce himself. In the small living room of the peninsula, the Parisian palace in the 8th arrondissement where we are staying, he adds, his beige coat carefully folded at the knees. “It turns out that I married a very talented man.” Novak Djokovic, therefore, a huge tennis star, the record holder for most Grand Slam titles won (24 to be exact), but also the record holder for seasons finished at No. 1 (eight, won). Yelena is regularly seen during her games. he was still in the stands at Roland Garros before the champion retired after suffering a meniscus injury. “Tennis is not the world I belong in,” he says, his gaze surprisingly mild. “I come to see my husband’s game and I leave,” sums up the woman who prefers to watch the games on TV whenever possible. “In the stands my smallest movements are being commented on and judged, it’s quite scary.” Behind his always flawless appearance and dark glasses, however, he remains inscrutable. “Honestly, there are games where I’m in a completely different place. Some where I’m literally hyperventilating.” He sleeps sometimes. He does not deny… He may not come, miss an important tournament. He already did it. In 2016, she unexpectedly left Wimbledon mid-tournament for a spiritual retreat in Ecuador; the couple later said they were going through tumultuous times at the time. After this unfortunate episode (Novak Djokovic lost his match after retiring…), he’s still there for the bigs. “I am very much in love with my husband. When he needs me, I’m there for him, which means everything else can wait.”

“I kept telling myself, ‘One day I’ll be a powerful woman in the shadows.'”

Elena Djokovic

Jelena Ristic, her maiden name, was born in Belgrade, like Novak Djokovic. They met in high school long before he became “Joko”. While he was already striving to become a champion, he dreamed of leaving Serbia and studying at American universities. “I kept telling myself, one day I’ll be rich and no one will know. I’ll be a powerful woman from the shadows.” At the age of 18, he joined the prestigious Bocconi University in Milan, before earning a master’s degree in luxury at the International University of Monaco. Since 2011, he has chaired the Novak Djokovic Foundation, which is dedicated to the education and development of underprivileged children. In 2015, he launched a magazine in Serbia, Original, aiming to provide students with in-depth articles on inspiring personalities and diverse perspectives on the future. “This magazine was my answer to today’s Serbian media, mostly tabloids with rough covers. I wanted the Serbian youth to become more aware and more authentic, to see beyond the idea of ​​making money.” The magazine unfortunately did not do well economically and it no longer exists today. Recently, Elena Djokovic launched a series of conferences on a topic she is particularly passionate about: parenting. She readily admits that motherhood has changed her life. “From the moment I became a mother, I had to completely abandon myself to devote myself to a new person. The first thing I said to myself was, ‘What, again?'” she laughs, barely hinting that she already has a child (husband) at home. In 2014, she had a son, Stefani; then to daughter Tara in 2017. Between the three of them, they must “invent” a place in Novak’s nomadic and glorified life, which they each endure in their own way. “When we spend a month somewhere, we call it home. Trust me, it’s a load. Tennis tournaments are week after week, and if we want to keep our family and stay together, we have to make some serious compromises. Stefan and Tara attend an international school that allows them to transfer à la carte to other institutions in other countries while maintaining the same program. “I don’t recommend to anyone what we put our children through,” she admits gravely. They suffer greatly from these repeated changes imposed by our complex lives, and I can only hope that this does not have long-term negative consequences.

Between her extremely demanding roles as wife and mother, we can only imagine the space that Jelena Djokovic has left to flourish as a woman. A space he desperately seeks. First, in his conferences. “My teacher, Dr. Shefali Tzabari, who is a world-renowned psychologist for her work on parenting awareness, always tells women: But also in the five books he always reads at the same time, including, at this moment, an essay on the power of parenting by psychologist Gordon Neufeld, Dr.^r: Peter Attia on the art of longevity, and therapist Terry Reilly’s bestselling book on areas for improvement in couples… “You don’t find that after twenty years in a relationship, we don’t say ‘s’ anymore. he asks. I was resistant in my relationships for a long time, but I learned that by accepting some things, I can make room for others. It won’t be long before Novak Djokovic retires from tennis, like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the other two great champions of his generation. Then the territory of Elena Djokovic will suddenly expand. He will be forty years old. And surely it will be leveled?… Meanwhile, as she prepares to return to the Roland Garros stand in August to support her husband at the Paris 2024 Olympics (the only honor she has never won), she has made it her ultimate goal, for better or for worse. … “When he loses a game, I know he’s going to be upset for a week … But I’ve been doing this for twenty years, I know what to do. now.”