Transcription
Greatness for me is purpose. If you find your purpose, you're going to give purpose to others. Whatever level you know, society you are, or whatever experience that you go through, you're going to maximize your, you know, life's experience only if you find a purpose.
I'm always very confident in myself. I think that confidence is derived from self-belief. Self-belief is derived from, I guess, clarity that you have. And clarity that you have is derived from the love and joy for what you do, what you choose to do in your life.
There's a great quote about this: discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments. Right? So whatever in life you, you know, envision to do, you got to be disciplined. You know, discipline spiritually, discipline in sports, and in whatever, in your family, in your relationships.
So, um, so very early, I think, um, uh, and and my parents and my tennis mother, Jelena Genčić, they've, uh, you know, deeply ingrained that discipline in me. And then I, I, I knew, I mean, already seven, eight, I was like, okay, I, you know, this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. I was really fortunate to be surrounded with some amazing people that are experts, you know, in tennis and sports, but also psychology and how to manage, you know, uh, young people and actually steer the early childhood development in the right way.
One of them was Jelena Genčić. She, she passed away 10 years ago, and I, I like to call her my tennis mother. And she taught me that it's important always to have a goal in life and to have clarity because goal brings clarity, and clarity brings discipline, um, and and right attitude, and perseverance, and resilience, um. So, and and she taught me about the holistic kind of, uh, multifaceted.
Weakness is and greatest strength at the same time is ability or inability to, um, comprehend things on a deeper level. To be more concrete, um, I feel I, I'm at my best when I understand that the power comes from within and that I can change everything inside. Whatever is happening outside, whether it's tennis court, whether it's relationship with my closest ones, whether it's whatever it is, I can solve it inside because I can change the vibration and frequency that I'm resonating on, and then the reality changes.
Nenad Zimonjić is my coach now, and I'm proud to have him in my team. He always says, you know, in tennis, you work, you, you work from top backwards, from, um, you know, basically setting up a goal and then you, you work your way back. And it's just, you know, exactly the whole season how it's going to look like because you know, okay, this is what I want to, this is my season goal. So, and then I let me work my way back to this moment.
Between winning the first Slam, I felt like I was, I was playing for the wrong reasons. I, I was playing because I wanted to achieve, I wanted to this, I wanted to live trophies, I wanted to do this and that. I didn't, and and and that's okay, but that's secondary. The first, you know, the primary, so to say, motivation needs to be what inspired you to start playing, what made you fall in love with the sport. And that is the, the love, the joy, the passion for it to play it, you know. And and so I, I all of a sudden became the the kid that I was when I started. And that's, that's, I, I felt so much energy and I just, exactly. So I never looked back after that.
Tennis has allowed me to have a stage in which I can, uh, communicate with youth, particularly that I'm kind of focused on, and also through our foundation here in Serbia, and motivate them to be the best they can possibly be, to believe in themselves, to believe in their dreams, believe anything is possible. And, um, that's, that's something that is very dear and very important to me.
I feel there is a, a much greater mission, uh, in life than in tennis, than just winning a tennis draw. I feel that, uh, through sport, um, people get closer to each other. Sport has power to unite, as as Nelson Mandela used to say, and I, I truly believe in that. I'm very grateful that I have, you know, closest people in my life that still support me on this, on this great mission, and and understand that, uh, that that's the journey that has chosen me.
I honestly, I, I do believe that also journey chooses you, not not just the other way around. So I think that, uh, I still have, um, things to do here in the sport. And, um, I believe I can, I can, um, win most Slams and, and, and, um, break the record for longest number one. And I believe those are, those are definitely my clear goals, um, but at the same time, they're not the only thing that motivates me, um, on a daily basis. I, I, it's not, it's not sustainable, it's not, it doesn't fuel me every day. What fuels me every day is something that is more related to my growth personally.
I had had a breakdown, and I, I remember, I remember going first to my parents and so talking about this and that, and I just, I cried and I like, I don't know if this is worth it. I don't know if I should keep going. So I went to to my coach at that time, Marian Vajda, and and my, um, my one of my best friends in life and my former physiotherapist, Milan. And I was in their room, and I remember sitting on the floor, and, and I just again, I had another breakdown. I was saying, I don't know. They're like, and they were like, okay, you know, take your time and, and just, let's, let's first, okay, breathe and let's come down. And then let's, let's look back, you know, and and and they were really, really wise. For example, like, let's go look back first, you know, you know why did you start playing the sport? And the whole thing, you know, and do, do you, do you love it? You know, do you still feel, leave, you know, leave aside what you want to achieve, what you want to do, passion for, you know, but that's, do you, do you really like holding a racket in your hand? And then like, actually, I, I do. I really, I love holding a racket in my hand, whether it's a Grand Slam, you know, clay court finals, whatever, or or it's just a normal, you know, public court. I, I still like playing for the sake of playing. They like, well, that's, that's your source. That's, that's what you need to tap into. And that's, and it's take a little bit of time. And literally, you know, they thought it's going to take a few weeks. And next day I'm like, okay, I'm back on track. Let's go. Let's keep going. And I never looked back.
I was quite convinced that everything will be fine, and after that, I'll keep on going, I keep on, you know, dominating the tennis, tennis world, winning matches. And then I realized that it's not really like that. And then I realized that I came to the stage of my life and my career where I had to, uh, dig deeper and understand myself on a, on a much deeper level than than what I have had till that point. And, um, I've put a lot of weight in my life and people around me in their lives on winning the French Open and completing the four Slams. But I think I probably put way too much weight on that, um, meaning happiness would be dependent on me winning or not. And then I realized that when I won, I, of course, I was happy. I was achieved something that I wanted to achieve for so many years, but I was not fulfilled fully. Something was lacking. Was some dark place where there was some little child hidden in the corner, um, crying and asking for attention, but not in a way through achievements, but in a way through, you know, emotions, through, um, I guess, um, other ways of communication.
Well, I realized that because of my devotion to tennis and and because of the way that got me to achieve those things up to up to that point, I left that inner child aside. And and I, I didn't, it didn't grow with me. And in other words, I did not dedicate enough time and proper way of, uh, addressing and treating myself on an emotional level. So I didn't grow up emotionally as much as I did tennis wise. And, and that's when I started, uh, addressing that a bit more. And then, and then I, I had to, um, endure through that journey. And then my tennis results were suffering more after that. I got, I got injured as well. And I'm super glad that I've done that. I just focus on on appreciating and understanding and accepting that something happened, and it happened for a reason. I am a more mature, more grown person inside. I am, I think more enabled to deal with my emotions and deal with everything that life has thrown at me.
When I became a father, I really never knew how much more I can love. And the dimension of emotion and love that, that I experienced, uh, that day when Stefan, um, came to us, it was just unexplainable and, um, incomparable to anything else that I have personally experienced, achieved, um, in my, in my life. And I'm sure Jelena will say the same and agree. Anybody who is a parent understands the amount of love and support and dedication, unconditional love that you feel towards your, your child, um, and the responsibility. And you're just, your life just completely shifts and turns around upside down. You never know.
Life is, life is full of wonderful surprises, and we are so blessed to be parents of two angels that are our teachers. They teach us how to, how to stay in a moment, how to be present, how to be joyful and playful. They awaken our inner inner children that we've abandoned for years.
Parents, obviously, I mean, they, they teach you about, you know, some fundamental things in life. They made us realize, you know, how important is to have the, the, the awareness about what you know, how you spend, how you save. But I think also the circumstances in which we grew up, uh, going back to the situation where my dad put 10 Deutsche Marks on the table, that's all you had. So I think also those circumstances in the environment taught us big lessons about money, and money being something that you have to value, that you to respect, because you have to earn it, you have to work hard for it. When you do, it doesn't belong to you, you know, it's just a mean that goes through.
Address certain emotional, you know, uh, issues or traumas or whatever it is that that, uh, tend to appear on the court. Emotions of this anger still are today present in everybody. But I worked on myself, I, I must say, and and all those emotions to, uh, forgive, because you need to forgive. Finally, how can you be fueled more by anything but by love? And love is forgiveness. And and that's my philosophy of life. And as hard as it, it might be, you know, but at the end of the day, you, you can, and I think you should forgive because you have to move on. You know, if you're stuck in that emotion, what, you know, what are you going to make out of your life? I mean, it's always going to hold you back. It's always going to hold you down, not just professionally, but privately, emotionally.
Some people maybe are stayed stuck in in that emotion of maybe hatred and just revenge type of feeling. I am not, and I don't believe that's the right thing to do because then you feel like you, you're, you're a prisoner of your own emotions in your life because you can, you can't blame anyone, you know, you can't blame people of any country for what has happened because they, it's not their fault, you know, it's, it's, you know, some maybe decisions of some head of states or or, you know, or militaries or whatever. I mean, it's, but in the end of the day, why, you know, if you carry this for all your life, I mean, what, I mean, does it, does it really make any change for you? Does it, is it going to enrich your life? I mean, it's not. So you might as well let it go.
Vulnerability is is a beautiful thing because when you're vulnerable, then you're emotional, then you're free, then you're kind, you're loving. So vulnerability is beautiful to show, especially for men. I see men a lot of times they don't show their vulnerability because especially particularly in sports, you know, because you have to be mature, you have to be strong and everything. But I think, you know, that shows me my, the still the weaknesses that I have, and the the path that is still ongoing, and that will probably never stop path of self-realization, of of self-development, growth, and self-love. Finally, but, you know, it takes, it takes a lot of effort, you know, every day I try to, you know, always tell myself, be open-minded, be open-hearted for for learning from anybody. It doesn't need to be Rafa and Roger only, might be any, you know, someone that is ranked outside of top 100.
I feel like, uh, life is a continuous learning journey because you need to have an open mind in order to forgive, in order to move on. I mean, if you, if you have a closed mind, I mean, it's really hard to learn anything. Believe in love, believe in this universal force that that that binds us together, that unites us all. And when you open your heart, and when you open your mind, then you are, you know, more prone to improve and love and bring people closer and understand. I think most of the conflicts and and wars that happen today is because there's no understanding. Of really like, there's a lot of religious wars in the history of humankind because there's no understanding. It's because I'm better than you, and you know, my God is better than your God, or whatever it is. It's like, you know, I, I don't think that's the future that that we want for our humankind and this planet.
I learned that, um, when you expect the least, it's when, you know, life will, uh, give you something to work at internally. I really feel my relationships became deeper, more significant, more intrinsic. And I realized actually, up to that moment, that relationships with close, some of the closest people in my life were quite superficial and shallow because I just didn't know how to handle that.