"Volume 1"Yeah, I thought of one last thread we needed... you know, for all the articles about him that are written, etc.
NOW we are set with the threads I believe.
But this will be the lovely place where our Serbian friends post the articles and we wait for translations
I'm not agreeing that it's right or wrong because other athletes said it. Everyone is free to have their own opinion on the matter, I was just saying, I don't think that his "youth, immaturity, loud mouth" that we may have associated with him have anything to do with it. Other athletes of different ages and personalities did the same thing. When he says he doesn't regret it, we might see that as- he doesn't regret it because he still has the same views on Kosovo but I think he probably means he doesn't even regret the going public part either, even now when he is "matured". It was an irrelevant comment really by me :lol:, I was just saying it because it was the vibe I got from reading it.the fact that other sportsmen or public figures stated their opinion doesn't change mine at all. I am all in favour for piece and tolerance, you all know that. Specially tolerance, that's almost my second name. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, amen to that. But everyone should also know when to shut up, it's a quality that we all know was not nole's a few years ago. :shrug: he spoke, very loud, and their were consequences for him. But besides that, when you are that famous and influential you need to be careful about what you say. I love him, I respect his opinion, but just because it's him i am not going to look away. :shrug:
Seriously, do you think those thugs care if the Kosovo comments were the "main topic of the interview"?Trust me that part was not a main topic of the interview at all. Just a few lines. It's the Serb newspapers or tabloids that have made a mountain out of a molehill.
The first page, and an ad for digital Spiegel in the middle of nowhere. Considering it wasn't even one of the featured stories of the issue, they seemed to find the picture very eye-catching.
That's what I understood, too. Problem is, it seems Saudi money has been making its way around the Balkans and steadily upping the fundamentalist fervour in the region's Muslim communities. There's anecdotal evidence Albanian Kosovars are not immune to the brain-washing. The guy who shot up the American GIs in Germany recently reportedly screamed "Allahu Akbar" as he was gunning down his victims. Go figure.On that level...everything is possible. Albos are not...regular "muslim" fanatics.
Yup, pretty muchWhat can u do? Isolate yourself? Live like M. Jackson? There's no point.
I guess Nadal is still struggling to come to terms with all the defeats“I believe Rafa 2010 had something more special than Rafa 2011, especially in tough situations.”
“Wining or losing depends on very, very, very small things,” expanded Nadal, who finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon and US Open finals. “And probably these very, very small things I did a little bit better in 2010 than 2011. It is hard to win big matches. I lost a lot of finals this year. This year I lost 7 out of 10.”
Nadal did not agree with Andy Murray’s assessment that the level of the men’s game had gone up another notch this season, instead suggesting that he and Roger Federer had not been as good as in previous years, and therefore were unable to keep pace with World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. “I don’t think the level has been better than 2010 or 2009. I think it has been similar,” said the Mallorcan. “For my part and Roger's part a little bit worse for the moment.
“Djokovic this year already won a lot of tournaments, three Grand Slams, he didn't lose matches. I don't believe that he changed his game unbelievably. He did a few small things better than a few years ago and that's why his big success this year. That's what I am going to try.”
Djokovic Voted Among World's Most Influential Men
www.atpworldtour.com
ATP World Tour No. 1 Novak Djokovic has been voted the third most influential athlete in the world by readers of AskMen.com, which attracts 17 million monthly readers.
In the sixth annual Top 49 Most Influential Men of 2011 list Djokovic ranked No. 19, with the only athletes to poll higher being FB Barcelona star Lionel Messi (No. 10) and Tour de France winner Cadel Evans (No. 11). This year’s Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open champion Djokovic finished higher than Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg and Rory McIlroy.
The magazine says of Djokovic: "Just when it looked liked Rafael Nadal was set to begin his long reign atop the men’s ATP rankings, the notoriously hotheaded Djokovic quieted all the outside noise, put all his tools together and reminded us why, right now, men’s tennis is the most exciting sport on the planet, after defeating Nadal at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships and the 2011 US Open." (Read full Djokovic tribute)
AskMen this week announced the results of their annual reader survey with recently deceased Apple founder Steve Jobs claiming the No. 1 position after more than 200,000 votes were cast over the course of September. The Top 49 poll challenges the magazine’s readers to determine which men have made the biggest impact this year and shaped what it means to be a man of influence.
Reflecting on the 2011 poll, James Bassil, Editor in Chief, AskMen commented: "This year’s list is a true reflection of the times we live in, with technology being at the forefront, and visionaries like Steve Jobs inspiring our readers all over the world. Jobs held steady in the number one position for the last four weeks during our polling, which really pays tribute to his legacy."
The complete roster of this year’s Top 49 Most Influential Men, including profiles of each honoree, can be found at www.AskMen.com. In order, the top 19 are:
1 Steve Jobs
2 SEAL Team Six
3 Larry Page
4 Warren Buffett
5 Kanye West
6 Mohamed Bouazizi
7 Prince William
8 Anonymous (Wiki leaks group)
9 Ryan Gosling
10 Lionel Messi
11 Cadel Evans
12 Jon Stewart
13 Andrew Mason
14 George Clooney
15 Jay-Z
16 Charlie Sheen
17 Alexander Skarsgard
18 Pep Guardiola
19 Novak Djokovic
After his third-round victory at the 2011 U.S. Open, Novak Djokovic, the eventual champion, slouched in a chair wearing a navy blue T-shirt stamped with “Authentic Club Staff” on the front and the logo of the apparel maker, Sergio Tacchini, on the sleeve.
It was a friendly affair, as these press conferences usually are. (“You play so well on the big points,” began one questioner. “Is that something that’s come over the last year or so?”) At one point, though, Djokovic was put on the defensive. “Around this complex, Roger [Federer] and Rafael Nadal have their own store, Andy Roddick has a huge picture over the Lacoste store. You’re not quite as visible despite being the No. 1 player,” said a reporter. “Do you care about that at all?” Djokovic smiled. “Well, I think I have to talk to my sponsors about it.”
Djokovic, who recovers as well as anyone in the game, cheerfully added, “But, look, you know, I care mostly about, obviously, the game, to win on the court, and everything else I leave to the people who are responsible for that.” The moment was revealing. Having won three of the sport’s four major championships and compiled a match record of 64-3, Djokovic has enjoyed arguably the greatest season in tennis history. His rise also marks a return to prominence for Sergio Tacchini, the 45-year-old brand that pays Djokovic to wear its clothes. Tacchini, worn and then discarded by the best, is worn by the best once more. But that is only part of the story.
Sergio Tacchini was an Italian tennis player, and he founded the company in 1966, toward the end of his career. Tacchini was tired of wearing white. He experimented with stripes and color, and soon started paying other players to wear his designs. In 1972, Ilie Nastăse, the future Hall of Fame player, signed with Tacchini for $5,000. By the end of the decade, John McEnroe was, according to media accounts at the time, getting around $400,000 to wear Tacchini during his epic matches against Björn Borg at Wimbledon. Jimmy Connors and Vitas Gerulaitis wore Tacchini. Tracy Austin and Chris Evert sported the brand’s red, white, and blue warm-ups when the U.S. won the 1980 Fed Cup.
Tacchini representatives traveled around the world, aggressively courting junior players and building the company’s roster of future Hall of Famers. By the early ’80s, Tacchini had expanded into skiwear, beach clothing, golf apparel, and weekend wear. It was a brand for the moment, offering an aesthetic that suggested at once leisure and aggression. The company called its iconic tracksuit “the Dallas.” It also knew how to spot future greats on the rise. In the late ’80s it signed a promising American teenager, Pete Sampras, to a three-year deal. It was extended to five years just before Sampras won his first major title, the 1990 U.S. Open, wearing a Tacchini polo emblazoned with a large yellow archer. Tacchini also outfitted the women’s winner that year, Gabriela Sabatini. It was the brand of champions.
Then it began to fade. By the mid-’90s bigger sports gear makers such as Nike (NKE) and Adidas (ADDYY) were aggressively poaching Tacchini’s clients and eating into its market share. (Sampras jumped to Nike in 1994.) But the company’s biggest headaches came from one of its own: Martina Hingis.
Hingis dominated the women’s tour during the second half of the ’90s. She seemed to fit well into the Tacchini firmament, appealing to wealthy, casually athletic, European-oriented fans. It didn’t work out. Three years into Hingis’s five-year deal, worth $5.6 million, Tacchini fired her, accusing Hingis of not wearing the clothes as contracted. Two years later, Hingis sued, claiming that the “defective” Tacchini shoes she wore had wrecked her feet and ruined her career. (Hingis had surgery in 2001 and 2002 to repair ligaments in her ankles.) A New York court dismissed the suit, ruling that the case should be heard in Milan, where Hingis had signed the contract and where another suit was pending. In 2006 her manager, Mario Widmer, told a German newspaper that “the Tacchini problem is resolved. We have come to a compromise and at the same time have agreed to keep silence on both sides.”
Hingis’s suit hadn’t destroyed the company’s reputation, but it did do damage. By then, though, Tacchini had a bigger concern: It had overexpanded by widening from tennis to other sports and leisure pursuits. Demand for high-end Italian warm-up suits dried up. In 2007 the company declared bankruptcy. A year later a Hong Kong businessman named Billy Ngok bought it for $42 million.
Ngok had made his money in the garment industry. He looked at Tacchini and saw a brand with a past in the West and a future in China. Shortly after taking over the company he began to restructure it, essentially splitting it in two: one international operation based in Italy and one based in China under its own management. Ngok declared that he had plans to expand aggressively in his home country, where tennis is just gaining a foothold. In the meantime, though, he went looking for a legitimate star.
Federer and Nadal were locked up by Nike. Adidas had decided to focus on Scotsman Andy Murray, which made Djokovic available. In some respects, Tacchini was an excellent fit for Djokovic: It was different, and so was he. While Federer was known for his effortless grace and Nadal for his strength and will, Djokovic was known for his impersonations of Maria Sharapova. His hair was oddly uniform, Chia pet-style. He moved like he was built of rubber. His entourage wore embarrassing T-shirts, often bearing the likeness of Djokovic himself. Plus, he was a Serbian patriot. He thumped his chest when he was proud. A bankrupt Italian-Chinese brand once known for its Dallas tracksuit? You could see the potential.
Since signing Djokovic, Tacchini has dressed him in shimmery, slightly malevolent black. At one point it draped the image of a dragon across his back. It has not been afraid of orange or of dramatic color fades. And Tacchini was willing to bet the bank. Company spokesman Edoardo Artaldi won’t say what the payout is—citing a confidentiality agreement—but confirms that the deal is unusually long. Most endorsement contracts run for only a handful of years. Djokovic’s runs for a decade, which should take him through his career, with an additional five years as an “ambassador” after he retires. The package includes the normal tournament incentives and ranking bonuses. Considering Djokovic’s performance in 2011, those payments will be stratospheric. He is also promised royalties based on international sales of clothing under his own line and, separately, a percentage of Tacchini’s business in China.
Of course, to make the royalties, the clothes have to sell, and to sell they have to be available. Distribution and delivery problems meant that Djokovic’s gear wasn’t even in stores during the Open. Compared with its competitors, Tacchini is a tiny company; its international sales outside China bring in about $55 million a year. (Nike’s eight-year contract with Sharapova alone reportedly is worth more than that.) After the U.S. Open, there was talk that Tacchini couldn’t possibly pay the bonuses due to Djokovic. Artaldi says that isn’t true and emphatically dismisses reports that the deal was in jeopardy, or that Djokovic was upset. “He knows what the company can do and what the company cannot do at the moment,” he says.
There have been perhaps a few too many recent reminders of what the company isn’t doing. In his semifinal match against Federer, Djokovic wore a white shirt and shorts and red shoes. You noticed the flashy shoes first. They were by Adidas; Tacchini doesn’t make pro tennis shoes. Adidas is forbidden from using Djokovic in advertisements—but that reporter at the press conference was right: At the U.S. Open, Tacchini wasn’t using his image, either
For better or worse, publicity in the U.S. does not seem much of a pressing concern. There are other markets, after all. After Djokovic won Wimbledon, Ngok accompanied him to Belgrade. There, Ngok—and businessman Ron Burkle, who was also in Djokovic’s box at the Open and hosted his victory party—met with Serbian officials, including Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, who was recently named head of Serbia’s tennis association. Blic, a Serbian newspaper, reported that Ngok discussed opening a power plant in Niš and manufacturing Tacchini clothes in the country. Already, Tacchini sponsors the Serbian Open, whose tournament director is Goran Djokovic, Novak’s uncle. “Part of his family is there,” Artaldi says. “For them it is very important, his country.”
In 1983—the heyday of the Dallas tracksuit—a Sergio Tacchini executive named Fernando Flisi told New York magazine that Tacchini’s mission was to keep the players looking good and happy. “We also want their friends to be happy,” he added, “and I can assure you that each of these guys has a lot of friends.” Indeed they do! When Djokovic rode into Belgrade after his win at Wimbledon over Nadal, he was greeted by an estimated 100,000 fans. Everyone seemed very happy.
old but deserves to be read. :lol:Memo to Roger Federer: Novak Simply 'Joked'
As someone who has enjoyed playing tennis for nearly 40 years, I am still in a bit of disbelief over ‘the shot’ Novak Djokovic hit against Roger Federer in the semifinals of the U.S. Open. Novak was facing two match points against the guy who has won 16 majors. That is more Grand Slam titles than anyone has ever won. How did Novak respond under such immense pressure? He simply hit the most incredible laser-like forehand return of serve winner that you will ever witness in a tennis match. That’s all.
The fact that Djokovic went on to defeat Federer and then Rafael Nadal in the final was almost anti-climatic to ‘the shot.’ It will go down in tennis history as one of the best ever! It has led me to coin a new word.
We all have seen many athletes in various sports make a terrible play at a critical time. We immediately say, “He choked.” But isn’t it time that we have a word to describe just the opposite? When someone blows our mind with a stupendous shot at a pivotal point in the game, I can hear people say, “That dude just pulled a Djokovic!” Why don’t we start celebrating such phenomenal shots by saying, “He Djok’d.” (pronounced “joked”)
In a press conference after the match, Federer himself still couldn’t wrap his mind around what had just happened. He said, “For me, this is very hard to understand how you can play a shot like that on match point.” Memo to Roger Federer: Novak simply “Djok’d.”
It makes me think of the stunned disbelief that Satan found himself in when Jesus showed up at his doorstep after His victory on the cross. Satan must have been thinking, “How does He play a shot like that on match point?” St. Peter writes, “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison.” (1 Peter 3:18,19)
Jesus didn’t go to hell to preach repentance. He went there to proclaim His victory. It was His first “press conference” after the match, and Satan had a front row seat. That cunning serpent thought He had pulled one over on the Almighty. As Satan was just starting to find out, he was the loser who had choked and Jesus had ‘joked’ by hitting the biggest shot this universe will ever witness. The joke was on Satan. He lost, and Jesus reigns forevermore.
LMAO! :haha:http://www.christianpost.com/news/memo-to-roger-federer-novak-simply-joked-55980/
old but deserves to be read. :lol:
Wonder what tournament he'll play? It's between Doha and Brisbane I presume...@stu_fraser
Djokovic, Nadal & Federer confirmed for Abu Dhabi exhibition from 29-31 Dec. Still unsure where Murray will start his Oz Open preparations.
Novak Djokovic is one of the greatest tennis players ever, says Pat Cash
Cash even believes the Serbian has proved himself to be better than Roger Federer at his best.
Djokovic has certainly had the most incredible of years, capturing three of the four grand slams, and securing the year-ending world No.1 spot.
And Cash would not be surprised if he rounds off a breathtaking year in style at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in the capital.
With 64 victories and just three losses for Djokovic during 2011, Cash said: ‘I don’t think many people saw it coming.
‘Novak has been phenomenal, winning the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open and getting to the semis at Roland Garros.
‘That puts him right up there alongside the best who have ever played. I feel Djokovic is better than Federer in his prime because he has greater opposition.
‘[Andy] Murray and [Rafael] Nadal are also in great form and Juan Martin del Potro and others are always dangerous. There is more depth to the game at the moment and that gives Djokovic the edge in my opinion.’ Qualification for the O2 concludes at the Paris Masters next month and Cash expects Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to be a genuine threat.
The Frenchman holds the final qualifying spot to make it into the eight-man field, and Cash admits he is a big fan of the Wimbledon semi-finalist.
‘[Tsonga] is a dangerous player when he is on form and has shown he can live with the best of them. He has the game and the range to trouble the top four. He’s developing into a very good player.’
Cash, 46, is a big fan of the end of season-ending tournament at the O2, saying: ‘It has grown in stature since arriving in London. I don’t know where it is heading next but I hope it stays here for a while.’