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Well, I do feel that I carry the responsibility of representing my country wherever I am, and this responsibility came with the success that I had in last couple of years, not just myself but the whole group of tennis players that comes from Serbia. And athletes in general are, in this moment, the biggest ambassadors that our country has.
I stopped thinking too much about what could happen and relied on my physical and mental strength to play the right shots at the right time.
The tradition in Serbia has always been team sports – football, basketball, handball, volleyball and water polo, individual sports are not supported.
Those born into poverty or on the margins of society require our extra support to realize their dreams.
It’s interesting that I had such a close relationship with my grandfather. Because your parents always judge you: they say, ‘You shouldn’t do this, you shouldn’t do that.’ But with your grandparents you have a feeling that you can say anything or you can do anything, and they will support you. That’s why you have this kind of connection.
People look up to me as somebody who is able to switch the image of our country from negative to positive.
Even though now I’m pretty popular in my country and tennis is the No. 1 sport, and I’m very flattered that the people recognise me and come up and give me compliments, I’m more a person who likes to have privacy and peace.
My father had never watched tennis, never liked tennis too much. He said, ‘OK, we buy a racket, we watch together,’ because we didn’t know anything. It was a process of learning together that made it more interesting.
The history of our country is cruel. We have to face those issues or, should I say, we had to. Not anymore I hope, because we are going in the right direction, and we are ready to forgive, ready to move on.
My mother is a special story. She went through so much to bring us up, four men at home, especially when our country was going through really difficult times.