10* Things Novak Djokovic Can’t Live Without

What's up GQ?

I'm Novak Djokovic and these are my essentials.

Now, sleep.

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Pretty familiar with this.

Just has evolved,

like different models and stuff.

But Head is my racket sponsor

and has been my record sponsor for many years.

I've played since I was very, very young

with Head racket, different models.

I played with Radical.

When I was probably like 14, 15 years old,

I played with that Radical orange red

and then it had the frame, silver frame.

Andre Agassi used to play with it,

which was obviously one of my childhood idols

and people I looked up to.

And, everyone wanted to be like Andre.

And this model is called Speed.

It's actually Speed Legend.

We launched it last year.

Most of the top players have been using kind

of half natural gut, half synthetic strings.

And I actually string it quite tight.

In kilograms it's like 28 and a half,

27 and a half.

So 28 for the mains,

27 and a half kilos for the cross.

As I understand, I am stringing it quite tight,

comparing to most of the other guys

that keep it like in the mid twenties.

I like to have more control.

I think the tighter the string,

that the more control you have on your ball.

I mean, a bit less spin,

but it's a good balance.

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So we have one of our family photos.

I think last year,

a group hug and a group kiss.

Can't express the love that I feel

towards my wife and my children

and they're the most important people in my life.

Winning Wimbledon when I was seven,

I had that goal, and then obviously

when I achieved that and I start

to set new goals, dream new dreams,

and then, so I've been so blessed

along with my wife, to experience both

of them seeing me live, you know, winning pretty

much any big trophy in the sport,

but particularly the Olympics gold medal,

which was, yeah, something extremely

special and unique.

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The gold medal directly from Paris,

2024 Olympic Games, it's beautiful, isn't it?

All the details, pieces of Eiffel Tower in there.

Really, really cool.

This is the real thing.

And I mean, it's heavy.

It's heavy.

On my fifth attempt at the Olympic Games,

I've managed to win gold medal

and at age 37

without dropping a set the entire tournament,

played some of the best tennis I've played

in my career.

I just felt very ready mentally and emotionally

and physically, particularly.

I played Nadal in the second round

and of course, you know,

Nadal wasn't in his recognizable form,

but still, I played a great tennis

all the way through and then beat Alcaraz

in the finals in a fantastic match,

where he played some his best tennis

and it was a difficult task,

but that makes this gold medal even sweeter.

An essential that I keep on traveling with.

I do keep on carrying it with me

for months and months after winning it.

My kids took it right away when I won it

and I haven't seen my medal for days.

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So here's the limited edition,

Big Bang Unico Novak Djokovic watch.

A dear watch to me because we've been working

on it with the Hublot team for a couple years.

Created from the recycled materials

of the Head tennis rackets that I've used.

Over 20 of those recycled Lacoste match t-shirts,

I think close to 20, maybe 17

of those have been different colors.

The composites of those have been used

to create this watch that is very light.

I like the Velcro logo that has been my logo

for the last 15 years.

Tennis scoring here in the game,

15, 30, 45 colors.

These buttons that resemble the tennis ball.

I'm very thankful to be able to have my watch

for the first time in my life in my career.

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A special jacket from Lacoste golden signature.

I think it resembles the gold medal.

It's a tribute to that.

And actually here it's written Sofia,

capital of Bulgaria.

This is the jacket especially worn

for that exhibition

that I played against Dimitrov.

And on the back we have the silhouette

of the back hand sliding signature move.

Very thankful to Lacoste for creating this jacket

and pushing the silhouette forward.

It's my favorite.

I think it has a little bit

of a Michael Jordan Air Jordan dunk type

of silhouette effect.

It's a very nice one.

Partnered with Lacoste, have a collaboration

with them since 2017.

From my point of view, René Lacoste

is one of the legends of our game.

Not just tennis related legend,

but also an inventor,

someone that has just left an incredible mark

in the tennis world and fashion world.

And some of the biggest legends

of our game have worn a crocodile

on their chest while winning Grand Slams

and making history of tennis with Lacoste.

And what they stand for

and what I stand for in my life,

it's a beautiful, beautiful relationship we have.

I brought couple books that I have with me now.

This is one of the most important ones

that I carry with me for many, many years.

I always have it on.

It's an Orthodox Christian prayer book

when I wake up or before I go to sleep

or during the day, before a meal and so forth.

Some I know by heart, some I have to read.

I'm a man of faith

and I believe in the divine power

and divine intervention.

So this is extremely important to me

and I have witnessed it many times in my life,

whether it's with health

or the prayer has incredible power.

The second one, it's translated to Serbian

from Dr. Gordon Nojfeld and Dr. Gabor Mate,

two very dear people to our foundation,

Novak Djokovic Foundation.

It's a be the support to your children.

It's basically a book about parenting

and about attachment, emotional relationship,

emotional challenges that kids go through,

but also parents with them.

And I mean, I'm a parent of two young children,

10 and seven years old.

So I struggle on a daily basis

with challenges and emotional challenges

or any other challenges to be,

I guess emotionally balanced myself

and not overreact

to what children are saying or doing.

And I always try to keep the right balance

and be available to them.

Alright, so the last one.

Calm Breath, Calm Mind.

I always talk about the importance

of conscious breathing,

'cause a lot of people ask me,

What is the best way to kind of get

into that, the zone, top athletes get

into that zone where they feel like time stops?

There's not one secret.

It's quite individual.

So you have to understand who you are,

your character, your surrounding,

the way you conduct yourself on a daily basis,

your healthy or unhealthy habits.

So you have to take holistically everything

into equation to understand

what that formula is from.

The more you train breathing,

conscious breathing, the easier will it become

for you to access the certain states

that you need at a certain time.

So I think this book is brilliant

because it gives some really practical examples

of those exercises through activity or passive

or just visualization or through mantras

or whatever is suitable for you.

That's all.

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So I have to have my shoes.

These are ASICS COURT FF 3

Novak Djokovic edition shoes.

These are I think the third model

from the first COURT FF.

It took us three years,

I think to develop the COURT FF shoes.

The last couple of years we've been changing

just the models, 1, 2, 3 with certain additions

because the technical team of ASICS

has been terrific.

They're always looking for ways

to help me move better, feel better,

slide better, stop better,

change direction on the court.

You know, next to the racket,

the tennis shoes are the most important item

for a pro tennis player.

You can't mess around with that

'cause that affects the balance,

affects the body, affects how you move,

how you accelerate, how you stop.

So it has to be really a perfect shoe,

tailor made for you, personalized.

There's some details here like the front part

of the sole.

Like these patterns here,

these circles are not there by chance,

particularly when you change directions

and you have to take off back

to a different side of the court,

this helps have a good, better grip

on the court and accelerate.

These are hardcore shoes.

And then I have these two symbols here

that I've been wearing for many, many years.

This is the white dove.

It symbolizes the freedom and peace,

and also connection to the greatest mind ever,

Nikola Tesla.

This one is reiki symbol called cho ku rei,

which means all the force

of universe is here and now.

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Right, so I have different bracelets that I wear.

These are Orthodox Christian religion,

like prayer beads with the Virgin Mary

here at the center.

Some of the bracelets that are made

for my children,

this has like a Serbian flag colors

imprinted here.

But my children,

particularly my son loves bracelets

so he has different boxes at home.

Last summer he was doing business on the beach,

so he was like making and selling.

This is also a prayer bead

that I have from Aman Hotel.

I'm their global ambassador.

So I got this one as a present

and it's a beautiful one as well.

I have a bunch of them and then I just

select the ones that I feel

at that given moment that I want to wear

and it gives me strength.

Kind of hard to explain this one.

Its energetic disc

creates an electromagnetic field around it

and kind of secret is in this pattern.

And so when you place it on a certain part

of your body, place this part, for example,

if you have a stomach issues,

which I do have often when I'm nervous,

stressed before the match or indigestion issues,

that's create heat.

So then it starts

enhancing the metabolic functions

or it reduces inflammation

in certain part of the body.

A doctor that I know in Serbia

who is also an engineer, he created this disc for me

and I have a bunch of those

and I do carry it everywhere.

When I fly in the plane, I put it on head

or somewhere I shouldn't be having it

on the body parts for too long.

So like 20 to 30 minutes, it does its work.

Supplement brand that I started

with my business partner

and long longtime friend, Mark Stillitano.

Nutrition has been an integral part of my career,

of my life, has been a passion of mine.

For example, this product here is a magnesium.

We are very proud of it

because it's one of the best

and most complete formulas for magnesium.

It has five different magnesiums in there

and it's amazing, particularly before bedtime

to help you with your sleep management,

with a deeper sleep, which is something

that I think we are all looking for.

This is one of the three flavors we have.

This is Lemon.

I can proudly say one of the most

complete hydration formulas out there

for people to perform their best.

And I say purposely people, not athletes only.

It's amazing for athletes,

but it's amazing for anybody.

I have two necklaces that I wear

with me all the time.

I mean one is the cross,

connection to the Orthodox Christianity,

very important to me and I play

with it bothering a little bit,

but it's very, very dear to me.

I'll take it off

because I wanna show you what's inside.

This kind of resembles the tennis ball

and also planet.

It has a kind of a symbolic connection

to my traveling and of course, my sport.

But once you open it, the pictures

of my family you have, me and my wife,

my son, my daughter, and our doggies.

Extremely important necklace to me.

I open this necklace up every day

and I kiss every member of my family

and kind of I know that they're always

with me even if we are not physically together.

So yeah, I wear this all the time.

I do tend to forget it somewhere in some bag,

particularly this one when I am traveling.

But then somehow I always find it.

There's some strong connection there.

Thank you guys very much for having me

on GQ 10 Essentials.

It was a pleasure and hope to see you soon.

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