My first tennis steps

It wasn’t my choice to play this sport. My very first dream was to score a goal in the biggest soccer game in our country Partizan-Red Star (even bigger rivalry than between Red Sox and Yankees). My father, Radivoj, who was raised in an agricultural family, played soccer in his youth. It’s been the most popular sport in Serbia for years, especially in suburban areas.  After Radivoj had fulfilled his goals and started a family in a city, he wanted his two sons – Aleksandar and Vladimir, to play some stylish, aristocratic sport. He chose tennis. My brother and I were totally fine with that since we liked most of the ball sports. Seven years after my brother started and played successfully, I gave tennis a try with a first group lesson. I was impatient to see what this mysterious sport is all about. I wasn’t able to figure it out right away. I still remember that first lesson with a coach who actually worked also on first Novak’s tennis steps. He used an old method of group practices which was a little bit static and slow. Our court for beginners was jammed with more than 10 kids. We were never hitting a ball with each other, but to the empty space next to the coach who was feeding us. Pretty boring for a little kid who is hungry for challenges and competition. Despite that, I kept coming interested and motivated. Impatient to hit one or two balls each two minutes, I remember that my first goal was to not miss any ball completely for a whole lesson. If I missed it, I was really, really annoyed. It took months until I played with some other kids so I couldn’t find “the magic” in tennis at the very beginning. It became much more interesting when I started playing sparring matches against one older and taller girl, who became a national champion a few years after. She was much better and stronger, so she kept beating me badly. But guess what, I wasn’t neither giving up nor losing interest! Actually, I found “the magic” in the competing. Also, the first little tennis dream was born, “I want to find a way to beat her!”

“I want the same thing I’ve wanted since I was 7 years old. I want to be #1” – Novak Djokovic