Djokovic biography by Dominic Bliss works as a condensed retrospective of his playing career.

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Hall of Fame
Dominic Bliss book 'The Greatest of All Time" takes a timid approach in his retrospective biography of the Serbian legend with a plethora of tennis data, but offers
trepidation when it comes to some notable off-court incidents.

The Author starts with an abbreviated explanation of the Nato Operation in Belgrade due to the actions of the Milosevic regime. The author generally describes the "ethnic cleansing" of Albanians in Kosovo as a major catalyst of the operation. The Nato bombing lasted 2 and half months as Djokovic and his family hid in a bomb shelter in his aunt's basement. The young Novak would see a F-117 stealth bomber drop two guided missiles as his mother (just regained consciousness) and the rest of his family fled to a bomb shelter. The ear-piercing noise would leave a lasting impression that even today Djokovic still fears sonic booms and loud noises. However, Djokovic states his rage would eventually subside and believes forgiveness and love is better than the alternative than "rage" since it can hinder the rest of your life. Perhaps this explains why he went back to Australia after the incident of 2022.

Djokovic had no family member that was involved in the sport of tennis as he practiced the sport in the local tennis club. His dad Sdrjan was into skiing and football. His parents owned a restaurant in Belgrade and a pizza parlor in Kopaanik with the latter being located in a mountain which allowed for skiing in the winter which allowed Novak to pick up added skills as flexibility that would translate to his tennis development. Once a tennis academy was built across the street from the pizza parlor it gave Novak more opportunity to learn the sport. Most importantly, it was the catalyst of his relationship with his first professional coach Jelena Gencic who would work with Djokovic until the age of 12. Jelena had already helped train GS champions as Monica Seles and Goran Ivanisevic. Djokovic would say after her death in 2013 that it was like losing a "second mother." Niki Pilic Tennis Academy in Munich also would play an instrumental role in the development of Djokovic and Dejan Petrovic would do the same in the later teenage years. The economic situation of the household and expenses to support Novak's development would result in family hardship. Sdrjan stating he had to borrow often from shady characters which required high interest rates and his life sometimes threatened when he was late to payback (blade to the throat). The Serbian Tennis Federation would take heat from Sdjan as he felt they could've done more. At the age of 16 he would sign a deal with sport agents for $250.000 Euros a year and a deal with Adidas would eliminate any further economic hardship and difficulties.

The Author Bliss as the Nadal book has 10 matches which he considers to be the most important in the development of the player. He picks the first ATP title in 2006 Netherlands against Nicolas Massu as the first one. Some of the matches discussed in detail are 2008 AO Final, 2010 Davis Cup win over Monfils, and the 2011 Nadal win in the Wimbledon Final.

Djokovic did have nasal surgery to help his breathing which was often an issue in his early years. The 2010 QF lost to Tsonga had the breathing issues reoccur which meant that he wasn't out of the woods yet. His comment was, "The Invisible force attacked...I couldn't breathe I felt I was vomiting all my strength." Dr. Igor Cetajevic would be watching with his wife and stated that the "asthma" rumors was a false diagnosis. He felt it was digestive in nature. This would be the catalyst eventually of the gluten-free diet. The doctor would perfom some tests including Djokovic holding bread to his stomach. He saw Djokovic got weaker and followed it up with an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay blood-test and the "kryptonite" was confirmed. Despite his parents owning a pizza parlor he knew that he had to cut pizza, wheat, pasta, and bread from his diet. This along with the late year Davis Cup win helped in making 2011 his first dominant year in the sport which he reached world #1. The Davis Cup win might not feel right to some to be included. However, Djokovic would say that the win helped renew his motivation for 2011 and would claim, "it was the best moment of his career and probably for my nation as it was like winning the world cup."

The year 2017 would see Miljan Amanovic suffer a severe heart attack and had to be resuscitated four times in 2017. This was the same year in which Novak had the major shoulder problem and had then coach Andre Agassi literally begging him to get surgery so he can be ready for the 2018 AO. The surgery would get delayed for months.

The book does go into technical analysis of each facet of his game. The ability to read an opponent's serve allows him extra time to prepare for the return. The Author seems to have a little fun in trying to guess the specific racquet Djokovic uses but when his sponsor Head was asked, they replied, "Unfortunately we do not give out any information about the pro players' personal rackets." They simply confirm he endorses their SPEED racket series. The Author then uses his own expertise and the opinion of other experts and thinks it possibly might be a HEADPT1138 with a paint job to suggest it's a Head SPEED model. Of course, players customize racquets and the point is that you can't purchase an exact Djokovic racquet. However, he adds the probable dimensions of a head size of 95 inches, a length of 27.1 inches, a strung weight of 353g, a string patternof 18X19 and a grip size of 4 inches. In addition, he clarifies that the string set-up will vary depending on temperature, altitude, and court surface. Nonetheless, he adds he generally uses Babolat Touch VS natural gut on the main strings and luxilon Alu Power Rough on the cross-strings.

The Covid vaccination controversy resulted in losing two sponsors Peugeot and Ultimate Kronos Group. He has numerous business ventures as a major stake at a Danish Biotech firm called QuantiBioRes which may help explain the entire vaccine issue. It would essentially compete against his own interest and philosophy. His family is involved in the wine business, and he did own a Vegan Restaurant for several years and the Djoko Life gluten-free products. Djokovic owns property outside of Serbia as Monaco, Spain, Miami, and even has a pair of condos in NYC that cost $10 million. BTW, he eats fish at times, so he is pescatarian and not vegan.

The Author does list many stats and records but fails to differentiate between All-Time Records and Open Era. This is a guy who was an editor for Ace Tennis Magazine for years and should know that purists will always point these things out. Moreover, he calls Rosewall the oldest player to win a slam at 37 but fails to even acknowledge the 41-year-old Arthur Gore who won Wimbledon in 1909 or Tilden who was 37 and a half when he won in 1930. However, he mentions the easy draw Rosewall had due to top players skipping the touarnment due to the ITF dispute.

There is a chapter called the "Universe According to Novak" in which he discusses his beliefs of telekinesis, emotions and water molecules, power of prayer and meditation, but the Pyramid portion was edited out. The Order of St. Sava was given to Djokovic by the Serbian Orthodox Church. He will claim it was the most important award he ever received. The Author Bliss injects skepticism with that response as he focuses only on the tribalism and violent aspect of religious conflict.

The Author like the Nadal book operates in condensed action with a lot of stats and economical wording. Yet, he seems to get to the point. He didn't want to go into too much detail about the events leading to the UN military involvement in Yugoslavia the 1990's but does steer it to the impact in had in Djokovic's upbringing. He does much the same for entire vaccination controversy. The decision to have the "Adria Tour tournament" in 2020 is criticized but he does mention that it was allowed by local authorities so the players weren't breaking any rules. I do think not mentioning the 2014 Wimbledon Final as one of the top 10 matches is an error. Djokovic had disappointing losses in 8 out of his last 9 slams so losing the final against Federer in the fifth set would've been a crutching defeat. After the 2014 win he would go on to win 5 of the next 7 slams as it was a major turning point.

This is a coffee table book with condensed retropsective of a player's career. I give it 7.5 out of 10.
 
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