Djokovic Trains at Partizan After 33 Years With Father
Novak Djokovic trained at TK Partizan on Wednesday for the first time since 1993, ahead of his trip to Beijing. His father Srdjan joined him, and both posed showing three fingers.
On Wednesday afternoon, ahead of his trip to China, a man nobody had seen on the courts of the Partizan Tennis Club (TK Partizan) in 33 years walked onto them again. Novak Djokovic arrived for a training session with his father Srdjan, right in the middle of his preparations for Beijing, and before anyone knew anything about the session itself, a short clip from the courts was already circulating online.
The club posted the clip to its Instagram story, and the photo that drew the most attention showed Novak and Srdjan, standing shoulder to shoulder, each holding up three fingers. The last time Novak had set foot on those courts was in 1993, as a child, long before anyone could have guessed what he would become in tennis.
Djokovic himself can be clearly heard on the training footage. According to Nova, he says:
“Three is three, thirty-three.”
Media outlets read the gesture differently. Danas and Sport Klub tie it strictly to the number 33, the number of years since Novak last set foot on that court. Nova went a step further and linked it to the parliamentary elections on October 25, where the “Student List, Students Win” is running under number three, especially since Djokovic has publicly stood with the students before. Student profiles on social media picked up on that connection as well. The Instagram account Reketiranje (@reket.iranje) shared the clip with the message:
“And even the best one knows!”
According to Nova, other posts in the same tone circulated on the same profiles, including “Three is three, twenty-four is twenty-four, GOAT is GOAT,” all carrying the same symbolism around the number three.
The Belgrade session is just a prelude to what comes next. From September 30 to October 6, Djokovic plays the ATP 500 tournament in Beijing for the first time in 11 years. His record there is one few players could ever match: six appearances, six titles, in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, for a combined 29 matches played and 29 wins, without a single loss. He took the last of those trophies in 2015, beating Rafael Nadal in the final.
According to Telegraf, Djokovic will be seeded fourth of eight in Beijing. Ahead of him are Jannik Sinner, who is returning to the court, and two time Grand Slam champion Alexander Zverev, while Felix Auger-Aliassime is also seeded. Possible early round opponents being mentioned include Jakub Mensik, Andrey Rublev, Hubert Hurkacz and Karen Khachanov.
Novak arrives in Beijing coming off his worst Grand Slam exit of the season. At the US Open, he fell in the first round on August 31 to Argentina’s Mariano Navone in five sets, 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, the first time in his career he has lost that tournament’s opening round. Before New York, he was eliminated already in the second round in Cincinnati by Tiago Agustin Tirante, while at Wimbledon he reached the semifinals before losing to Sinner. As we reported earlier this week, that run dropped him out of the top ten, to number 12 in the world.
The training session at Partizan changes nothing in the rankings, but it says something about the mood heading into Beijing: Novak went back to where it all started, with his father beside him, just days before leaving for China. Whether the tournament he has never lost will stay that way after this edition, too, will be clear from September 30, when Djokovic walks out for his first match in Beijing.
