When the Big 3 aren't battling for Grand Slam supremacy, they aren't aligned on pro tennis politics, says Novak Djokovic's father.
In a wide-ranging interview with Sputnik, Srdjan Djokovic said neither Roger Federer nor Rafael Nadal have supported former ATP Player Council president Novak Djokovic's efforts to aid other players.
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The world No. 1 launched the Professional Tennis Players Association along with Vasek Pospisil and others last August aiming to aid lower-ranked players. The elder Djokovic said that mission is "much harder because he doesn't have the support of Federer and Nadal, which is really an amazing fact to me."
"That Serbian stubbornness is well-known, and it seems to me that the more he invents some things that have nothing to do with the truth and the brain, the better and better he plays," Srdjan Djokovic told Sputnik. "[Novak] wants to show that tennis is not just a tennis game, but that tennis is life. That life is for those few thousand fantastic young players he is fighting for.
"It's much harder because he doesn't have the support of Federer and Nadal, which is really an amazing fact to me ... as if they haven't already taken enough money, so they need a few more millions, a few billion ... I don't know what it's about, but yes they do not support Novak for something that is generally good for those people who can barely make ends meet, for me it is a really incredible enigma."
Novak Djokovic has repeatedly said the Professional Tennis Players Association he formed with Pospisil and more than 200 of their ATP colleagues will focus on representing Top 500-ranked singles players and Top 200-ranked doubles players and aims to give players a voice in the sport's politics. Djokovic, John Isner, Pospisil and Sam Querrey left the ATP Player Council to become part of the Professional Tennis Players Association.
When announcing the creation of the PTPA in August, the nine-time Australian Open champion said he was confident the new association could co-exist peacefully and productively with the ATP.
However, following an ATP rule change preventing active players from being part of both the ATP Player Council and an outside organization, the 18-time Grand Slam champion said it sends a clear message: the ATP has no interest in cooperating with the Djokovic-led PTPA.
"I was saying before and I'm going to say it again: We want to collaborate with ATP, and we want to be able to potentially have a place in the ecosystem, because this is what players deserve," Djokovic told the media at the ATP Finals last November. "Now with this rule that has been voted on last night, that actually is a strong message from ATP that they don't want PTPA at all in the system, and they don't want any player, you know, involved in council and PTPA at the same time.
"So it's very clear. It wasn't clear from ATP before. The reason why you are not hearing much from PTPA in the last couple of months is because we have been trying to discuss with the ATP and we have actually had some conversations with them on trying to understand how we can work together, because PTPA's position was never to oppose ATP or ITF or WTA or anybody."
Srdjan Djokovic reiterated his belief that his son was sent by God to show the world the honor and integrity of the Serbian people.
"Novak is an unseen miracle. He appeared at the worst time for Serbia and the Serbian people - at the time of bombing, sanctions, humiliation and oppression," Srdjan Djkovic said. "Imagine that twenty of the richest countries in the world are bombing a small Serbia.
"In all these troubles, Novak appeared, as if God sent him to show that we are not a genocidal people, that we are not the worst in the world, but that we are part of the old European civilization and that we have nothing to be ashamed of."
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