Novak Djokovic’s wife, Jelena, has been a staple in his camp throughout his career. The couple started dating when Djokovic was just 18 years old. They’re now married with two children, Stefan and Tara, who are also frequently seen in the world No. 4’s box during matches.
Although Djokovic believes Jelena is the “love of his life”, he’s now revealed that his wife actually dated one of his old tennis rivals when they were younger – and the current world No. 4 even made fun of the player in question for trying to impress Jelena with a romantic gesture after a match.
Today, Jelena focuses her attention on the charity she founded with her husband, the Novak Djokovic Foundation. The 39-year-old is the CEO of the foundation, but back in the day, she was also a tennis player.
Although Djokovic never met Jelena while she was playing tennis, he did run in the same circles as her – and even played alongside one man who dated her before they got together.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion shared the unique story during an appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored, telling the British broadcaster: “I believe in destiny for sure. She used to play tennis but we never met through tennis while she was playing it, but she dated one tennis player that is a friend of mine from early days.
“It was funny, because the first time I heard about her was when that friend, who was in the same tennis club as me, played a match in the regional tennis league and we won, an important match.
“He took out his jersey and underneath the jersey he had a white shirt written, ‘Jelena, I love you. This is for you’. And we were like, ‘Oh my god that’s so lame, why would you do that?’ And then, ‘Who is this Jelena?’ And it was her.”
Djokovic may not have been on board with his friend and rival’s t-shirt tribute. But he soon met Jelena himself and the rest, as they say, was history.
He continued: “And then she showed up afterwards and so forth, and then we’ve known each other through obviously common friends for about four, five years.
“And actually, one of my best friends, has been her friend and they went to school together. So we were in kind of a similar, same company, and then we started dating when I went to live in Monte Carlo.”
The former world No. 1 made sure to clarify that the other tennis player had, of course, broken up with Jelena at this point. “Just to make it clear, please, don’t put me on the spot here!” he laughed.
“She went to study in Italy and then we started dating, so she is basically the only serious, like long serious relationship I’ve ever had. I had obviously some few months relationships here and there. She’s truly the love of my life.”
Djokovic remains friends with the player to this day – though they’ve never addressed the elephant in the room. “I actually spoke to him. I really have. He’s good,” he smiled.
“He moved on, he has his family. No, we actually never spoke about it. We are both very uncomfortable. We still remain mates, so it’s good.”