Novak Djokovic, a focused tennis player, and Ernests Gulbis, a party animal, have long held divergent perspectives on what it takes to be the best. While the Serbian tennis player accelerated on the tennis court, the 34-year-old tennis great gained notoriety for defeating Roger Federer at the 2010 Italian Open. But hold on, do you know Djokovic and the former Latvian tennis star have known each other since they were children?
Recently, Cosmin Georgescu, a former Romanian tennis player who went to the same Nikola Pilic Academy as the other two, provided some insight into the Serb’s childhood rage.
Novak Djokovic and Ernests Gulbis were poles apart from each other
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The Latvian tennis player and the current world number 2 tennis player gained a lot of headlines with their intriguing face-off, in their 2014 French Open semi-finals battle, which literally gave thunder to both tennis players to prove their worth. Now, years after having a totally different lifestyle from each other, while the Serb is still active, the 34-year-old became the President of the Latvian Tennis Union last year.
But out of a sudden, there was a common thread between them: Cosmin Georgescu, who has spent a lot of time together with both tennis players during their time at the Nikola Pilic Academy. According to the Tennis Update, the former ATP player revealed that they both broke rackets emphasizing Djokovic’s rage.
He said, “Two different characters: Djokovic and Gulbis. They were completely different, but when they were both on the field, no one could take them off until after 6–8 hours of training a day. They broke rackets, argued, punched each other, always punched each other. Two ambitious characters as rarely meet, proud and determined.”
Not only that, he also stated that the aggressive side always used to come forward because of their dedication to the sport. But the Serbian tennis players’ aggressive behavior of smashing rackets, the tennis arena has been seen a lot of times, and the most recent one was seen during the 2023 Wimbledon final.
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When Djokovic displayed his frustrated side on the court
During the Wimbledon final, when the Serbian tennis player was struggling a little bit, the frustration was quite evident on his face. But by the time they reached the 5th set of the final, he vented out his frustration, lost his cool, and broke his racket by smashing it against the net pole.
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Not only that, he has displayed various acts of frustration on the tennis court, such as silencing the crowd and having a little word-to-word with the chair umpire. But as of now, he is chilling with his family, making the most of his time before heading out for the next tournament.
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