Winning Hearts and Minds
Awarding Djokovic the Grand Slam runner-up silver plate, the USTA Board Chairman Jane Brown Grimes said: “Novak, you may not have won the match, but you have won our hearts!”
Novak’s Love With New York
20-year-old Novak Djokovic, the youngest US Open finalist since Pete Sampras in 1990, may not have won his first Grand Slam title this time around, but he seems to have won New Yorkers and that’s not a small coup.
Few days ago New York Post announced: “To those critics who claim tennis has no personality, no flavor, the sport can answer with two words: Novak Djokovic,” adding that “the young Serb gives the sport an infusion with both his game and his charisma.”
After he won the U.S. Open quarterfinal over former world’s No. 1 Carlos Moya, asked by the announcer Michael Barkaan, Novak “brought the house down” with riotous laughs over his on-court impersonations of Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal (YouTube clip).
“I enjoy it,” said Novak. “I’m really happy the people accept it in a positive way. I’m not trying to make fun of Maria or Rafa, I’m just trying to make the people laugh and have a good time, trying to enjoy the tennis on the court and off the court as well. You’ve got to look on the positive side of things.”
“Which is what makes him so refreshing,” says The New York Post’s Brian Lewis.
Today we learned that at least the Russian beauty, Maria Sharapova, doesn’t mind one bit, since she was among the Novak’s special guests, rooting for him in the finals match against Roger Federer, while sharing the box with Novak’s parents, along with the famed American actor Robert De Niro.
Novak claims it is he who is having the best time ever: “One of the best feelings I ever had in my life is playing here. It’s amazing.”
No wonder, being that he even got to sing on stage of Metropolitan Opera House while in New York, only to be told by the highly acclaimed soprano Natalie Dessay to keep his day job no matter what.
AP’s Ben Walker wrote:
“[Djokovic] met Dessay outside the locker room. She’s a tennis fan, but this was her first match in person. Djokovic made her feel welcome, serenading her — in Italian, too — with a bit of Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni.’
“Impressed, Dessay invited him to watch her [rehearsal for ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’]. With his parents, he walked into the great hall shortly after noon and stayed for more than an hour.
‘To see him, such a young boy, young enough to be my son, he’s so light and fresh,’ the French diva said. ‘Such a beautiful player. Such showmanship.’[...]”
It just goes to prove that “winning hearts and minds” takes a bit more class and skill than “shock and awe.”
Comments
A lovely tribute, Svetlana, to a well deserving young man who has made so many of us proud -- even when he didn't win!
Posted by: Blackbird | September 9, 2007 11:47 PM
He really more than deserves it, you're right. I watched the match and it was so unbelievably tight and close - neck-to-neck, literally, almost until the very end and quite difficult for Federer, with Novak often taking the lead, demonstrating that he is absolutely as good as the Swiss who, by the way, reached his first US Open finals only when he was three years older than Novak is today.
After watching Novak play today, I have no doubts that the best things are just around the corner for him :-))
Posted by: Svetlana | September 10, 2007 01:37 AM
go NOLE !!!
Posted by: miks | September 10, 2007 05:23 AM