Love him, or hate him, but you cannot ignore Novak Djokovic! This 37-year-old tennis star never stops surprising the tennis world with his incredible record-breaking abilities. He recently defeated Carlos Alcaraz in the finals of the singles event at the Paris Olympics to become only fifth player to win all four singles grand slams and the Olympic title. Despite all these successes across the world, he has never been the darling of a few sets of fans. However, according to Sascha Bajin, Djokovic may have a handful of fans, and that his fandom is the purest of the ‘Big 3‘.

Seeking to unravel the enigma that is Novak Djokovic, Mark Hodgkinson’s new book, ‘Searching for Novak: The Man Behind the Enigma’, includes an exploration of why the tennis champion has struggled to garner widespread fan adoration. The author achieves this by interviewing those intimately acquainted with the player. According to that book, Novak’s friend Bajin who is also a German-Serbian tennis coach, there is more to cheer with what Djokovic has rather than to lament on those who don’t recognize his contribution to the sport.

Before the ex-ATP Pro gave his stance on the matter, Hodgkinson wrote, “Speak to people close to Djokovic and some say that this narrative about him being unloved everywhere he goes in tennis is very tiresome. In South America and also in Asia – in huge tennis markets such as China, India and Japan – Djokovic is apparently right up there with Federer and Nadal.”

There are few parts of the world in which Bajin, thinks, fans feel, “he’s one of us,” and that’s just because he’s not from an upper-middle-class background. Bajin, who has worked with Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, said, “There are few tennis fans who are as hardcore as some of Novak’s supporters. It seems to me as though you either love the guy or you hate the guy because he’s so true to himself. That’s actually why I love and respect him a lot.” According to Hodgkinson, Djokovic has tried to accept that he’d never be the most beloved tennis player, but time and again he has felt a bit uncomfortable about not being loved.

After playing the sport for almost 21 years, he still has to search for crowd support no matter where he plays. According to research conducted in 2023 by World Sports Network, the Serb has received the most negative tweets as almost one in every five tweets about him. The report says nearly 11% of the reactions on the posts surrounding  Djokovic on Facebook are ‘angry‘ reactions.

What does he think about all these numbers and what are the reasons why his fans always take an aggressive route while defending their favorite star? Is it something like you get what you give?

“Hate is a horrendous emotion” – Novak Djokovic

According to Nole fans, Djokovic is an astonishing athlete, a loving father, and a compassionate humanitarian. So, it’s hard not to be a fan of him. However, at times this fanbase has caused quite a bit of controversy by going a bit too further to defend their idol. Perhaps this is what once led to WTA star, Marta Kostyuks’ take on, “Novak Djokovic’s fans are very aggressive. I know this because I experienced it in the past and received a lot of hate, especially from Serbian fans.” There have been many such instances when some of the biggest stars of the tennis world faced the wrath of Nole fans. However, Djokovic himself doesn’t promote any sort of hatred to anyone.

Previously when he was asked to reflect on his thoughts on the numbers with the amount of hate he receives on social media, the Serb said, “As Kobe used to say, it’s a great quote: ‘Haters are a good problem to have. Nobody hates the good ones. They hate the great ones.‘” He further went on to reveal that, “I don’t hate anybody, I don’t nurture that kind of emotion and I don’t raise my kids that way. Hate is a horrendous emotion.”

According to Djokovic, all these hatreds speak more of the nature of that person rather than defining his own nature. His fanbase was never as big as someone like Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal but the ones who back him, are always die-hard supporters. Sascha Bajin’s words prove that yet again!