Novak Djokovic wins the Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award of the year for the 4th year after 2012, 2015, and 2016.
This award came after a fantastic 2018 for Djokovic that had an incredible resurgence from getting surgery to be the world no.1 at the end of the season. However, as usual, Djokovic didn’t impress “only” for his magnificent results, but also for his sportsmanship that allowed him to win the prestigious award.
Djokovic thanking his wife Jelena
Nole didn’t lose the opportunity to thank his wife on stage to admit that he was close to retirement last year. The Serbian sensation revealed
“I would like to thank my wife for taking time and for presenting me in a different light, and I think that the rare occasions we can share our personal journeys and who we are behind the curtain and I think you’ve done it much better than I would do it.
Your support has been tremendously significant to me in those moments when I was questioning everything when I was going through my doubts and dilemmas whether I want to keep on playing tennis. And yes I did think about leaving tennis and I did think about everything else and I just didn’t find myself in a good balance in life at that point.
I did feel like I let myself down when I had surgery, you were right, and it took me several months to find that purpose, find the meaning again.”
That was quite a speech!
It was fitting that we gave the last words of #Laureus19 to an athlete who epitomises so much of what we admire in our sporting heroes.
What a speech @DjokerNole… pic.twitter.com/kQpZm5RK1M
— #Laureus19 (@LaureusSport) February 18, 2019
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