Novak Djokovic forced to deny son’s wish with Stefan, 10, ‘in love with tennis’ | Tennis | Sport

Novak Djokovic is back in action at the Shanghai Masters – his first tournament of any kind since the US Open, and his first ATP event since May. The world No. 4 has enjoyed a few weeks off with his family after they reportedly moved to Athens.

Djokovic was even spotted at Greece’s recent Davis Cup tie with his son, Stefan. But the 38-year-old was unable to give Stefan his wish ahead of his upcoming 11th birthday as he jetted to China to compete in the 12-day Masters 1000 event.

Aged 38, Djokovic has become increasingly selective with his schedule and stopped planning ahead when entering tournaments. It arguably came as a surprise when he decided to compete in Shanghai, but the Serb will officially play his opening match against fellow veteran Marin Cilic on Friday.

The 24-time Grand Slam champion has made it no secret that it’s becoming difficult to leave his family at home to travel to tournaments. During the recent US Open, he missed his daughter Tara’s eighth birthday and paid tribute to her with a hilarious dance on the court.

This time around, he’s headed to Shanghai without his kids, even though tennis-mad Stefan – who went around Wimbledon collecting players’ autographs just a few months ago – wanted to join him on the trip.

The four-time former Shanghai Masters champion explained: “My son, he plays tennis more and so he follows what’s going on. He was really insisting on travelling with me to China. He wants to travel with me everywhere, but he has to do school, and it’s not that simple. But he’s really in love with tennis and the sport.

“Yeah, my kids and my wife are, you know, my biggest supporters, and obviously when they are in the stadium you’ve seen them how they support, how passionately they care about and play with me every single point. So, of course, me seeing them on the stands, you know, it’s even more inspirational. I love to have them.

“But at the same time, you know, the kids cannot live daddy’s life, they have to live their own life. I try to support them and be there for them. Whether they feel like I have, yeah, they believe in me. They feel like, you know, they look at me as the best always.

“And so they, when I’m kind of down on myself, they remind me of the things that I have accomplished and why they still believe that I can do it. So their support is very meaningful to me.”

Stefan might be able to watch his dad in action at the ATP 250 event in Athens at the beginning of November. The tournament is usually staged in Belgrade and held by Djokovic’s family, but it has been moved to Greece this year, and the world No. 4 has reportedly relocated to the country with his wife, Jelena, and their two children.

For now, it’s the only tournament that Djokovic has committed to for the rest of the year, but the Paris Masters takes place the week before, and the ATP Finals in Turin begin as soon as the Athens event is over.

“You asked me about Turin. Yeah, it is a tournament where I had quite a bit of success in the last years, I won it two times, and, you know, hopefully I can be back, let’s see,” he added.

“I don’t make plans long-term anymore. I’ve said that, I said that in New York. So after Shanghai, the only tournament I know I’m going to play is the one in Athens, and then let’s see if I play Turin or not, I’m not sure yet.”