Djokovic recalled his roots

FROM THE BNP PARIBAS OPEN AT INDIAN WELLS -Picture the little Novak Djokovic peering out of the windows of his family pizza and pancake restaurant when he was a kid, watching laborers dump a ton of crushed red brick on the ground, roll it over and over, nail down some white plastic tape, raise some fences and eventually, view a proud woman stride onto the surface and begin hitting balls.

Such was the scene in Serbia back in the early 1990s and one day little Novak walked across the street, and met the woman who would teach him to play, Jelena Genie, whom he still keeps in contact with. You can still see a few videos of the two working together online and it was clear then she knew exactly what she was doing and pretty soon, he had his base down.

He could have played water polo or basketball, but he liked the self-reliance that tennis presented to him