‘Oriented Towards Others’: Marion Bartoli Heaps Praise on Novak Djokovic for Voicing Out Concerns Through PTPA

The 2021 ATP season clearly belongs to Novak Djokovic. The World No.1 won three Grand Slam titles and leveled two of his greatest rivals – Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, in terms of major titles. There were a couple of difficult losses for the Serb as well.

One was the defeat at Tokyo Olympics, where he entered the event immediately after winning the Wimbledon. The other loss came against Daniil Medvedev in the US Open finals.

Djokovic was not just overpowered by a strong opponent in Medvedev but also found himself under pressure due to expectations from a fully packed Arthur Ashe crowd, cheering for the Serb all the way.

However, he managed to finish the year on a high and clinched his seventh year-end no.1 crown. In another good news to fans, Djokovic is almost certain of making an entry at the Australian Open as his name was present in the list of players.

Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli lauds the generosity of Novak Djokovic

With the uncertainty regarding Djokovic’s decision to play in Australia, former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli talked about the world no.1 in a recent interview to, ‘We love tennis’.

The French former professional player talked about the benevolent nature of Djokovic with respect to other tennis players who are outside top-100 in men’s rankings.

“I know Novak very well. Contrary to popular belief, Novak is selfless and generous, but also extremely intelligent.”

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Bartoli also opened up about the Serb’s intentions behind launching PTPA.

“Novak’s approach is not to create a counter-power or to exert pressure. He simply wants to defend the interests of the little ones, allow them to earn more money, to have more means.“

Djokovic and Pospisil are yet to reveal more details on PTPA

Finally, Marion Bartoli concluded that the Serb is not just a top-class athlete with a ‘killer’ attitude on-court but also a person who thinks about others, especially from his sport.

“Novak is a person who is viscerally oriented towards others. On the court, he reflects the image of a killer, but in life this is not the case and he often sees beyond his own interests.”

Even though the future of Professional Tennis Players Association is uncertain as of now, one can understand the intentions behind the organization. Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil wanted to make every player, irrespective of their ranking, take tennis as a profession and be able to make a decent living out of it.

Also read: Serena Williams, Roger Federer, and Others Missing From Australian Open 2022 Entry List