Novak Djokovic should be respected for the conviction he has in his beliefs, says former world number one Andy Roddick.
Djokovic and his family relocated from Belgrade to Athens in September, and he is currently in action at the Hellenic Championship – an ATP 250 tournament staged in the Greek capital- which is organised by the Djokovic family.
The 38-year-old has said that moving to Greece with his family “wasn’t something I had planned for a long time”, explaining that things have changed in his life “both privately and professionally” in the last two years.
Djokovic, who has won a record 24 Grand Slam singles titles, is considered by many to be the greatest player in tennis history, and he is Serbia’s biggest national icon.
In December 2024, Djokovic expressed support for the student-led protests against Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic and the government as a whole.
In March, Djokovic shared photos from a protest, in which around 300,00 people participated, on Instagram with the caption: “History, amazing!”
As a result of his stance, Djokovic was reportedly the target of a smear campaign from the Serbian government via regime-friendly media outlets.
Speaking on the latest episode of his Served podcast, Roddick gave his verdict on the reason for Djokovic leaving his home nation.
“I have so much respect for Novak for, if he says something out loud and he believes it, he actually believes it,” said the 2003 US Open champion.
“I mean, he will move to Greece because of his belief system, and uproot everything. So you have to respect that one way or the other.
“And that probably says a lot about why he’s been able to do what he’s done for so long, right? Everyone believed that Roger [Federer] and Rafa [Nadal] were the best and no one was gonna break that, and he (Djokovic) goes, ‘I believe I can.’ And he did.
“And there are a lot of moments that, maybe not everyone agrees with and they become polarising. And also, he fully commits when he says he believes something. At some point, you gotta respect that.
“There are a lot of people who will say something, and I even might agree with that thing, but then they don’t act on it, so then their respect kind of dies out, because it’s the easy thing to say and a harder thing to do. He does the harder thing. He acts what he says all the time.”
The American went on to compare Djokovic’s status in Serbia to that of football icon Pele in Brazil and basketball legend Michael Jordan in the United States.
“I don’t know how close he is to retirement. I don’t know that anyone does. We know that he’s closer to the finish line than he is to the beginning. We know that we probably won’t see him in three years out on tour,” Roddick continued.
“And also, it’s like, ‘Okay, I know I might have a year or two left, and I’m going to uproot my entire family, move schools, and move to a new place in the middle of this kind of sunset of my career, because I believe something, and because it’s controversial.’
“If I’m Serbian, I mean this guy’s on the list of all-time… I think of Pele in Brazil, I think of Michael Jordan in this country. He is the biggest thing that has possibly ever existed in his country.
“For what he’s done in tennis, he’s created a legacy of tennis in his country that’s new and that is changing, and he’s defined so much of the culture, especially the sporting culture there.
“It’s sad to see. It stinks. I’m sure he’s not crazy about it. He has also always shown up and played for Serbia. Olympics, Davis Cup – when he hasn’t had to. At this age, no one would blame him for not showing up for Davis Cup for the last 10 years, and he has. So it’s an unfortunate situation.”
