After tennis player Novak Djoković won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics—the final accolade missing from his illustrious career—Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced the opening of a museum in his honor in Belgrade.
The Novak Djoković Museum will be the newest addition to Belgrade’s rapidly evolving cultural landscape. In May, the government announced plans to open 6 new museums in the city by EXPO 2027, transforming Sava Square in Belgrade Waterfront into a vibrant museum quarter. Now, they have revealed that another museum will be dedicated to honoring the world’s greatest athlete.
While visiting the works on the National Stadium, President Vučić announced that they will soon start building a museum dedicated to Djoković. “I believe we can complete it before the EXPO and offer it as an attraction for tourists,” said Vučić. “Rafael Nadal has a museum in Palma de Mallorca, and Djoković is greater than him in tennis. With this, we want to show how much we respect what he has accomplished, and also attract tourists.”
“When you gift a Novak Djoković racket to a Chinese official, they cannot accept it because it would be considered too valuable and expensive a gift,” added Vučić, illustrating Djoković’s popularity in China.
Novak Djoković, born in Belgrade in 1987 and raised in the Banjica neighborhood, is widely regarded as the greatest tennis player—and arguably the greatest athlete—of all time. He has been ranked No. 1 by the ATP for a record 428 weeks across 13 different years and finished as the year-end No. 1 a record eight times. Djoković’s awe-inspiring career boasts 99 singles titles, including a record 72 Big Titles: 24 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, 7 year-end championships, 40 ATP Masters titles, and an Olympic gold medal.
His latest achievement, winning the gold medal in Paris at age 37 in a dramatic final against Spain’s young powerhouse Carlos Alcaraz, is particularly significant to him. Djoković considers it the pinnacle of his career, especially as it was won for Serbia and the Serbian people, who have always supported him. (sources: Danas, 021)
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