Living on the costa

Since the viking Bjorn borg will be installed in Marbella At his peak as the best player in the world, in the late 70s, the world of tennis has looked to the Costa del Sol. Shortly afterwards, the recently deceased Manolo Santana did. And two years ago it was Novak Djokovic, that he had already been frequently because he had friends, but that he took the step after spending the first confinement in Andalusia, in a rented room. Later he bought a mansion in a select area of Marbella, valued at 10 million euros.

Djokovic, world tennis number one, is in the eye of the world media hurricane due to the situation he is experiencing in Australia, where his participation in the first grand slam of the year, which he has won eight times, is on the air because he can be deported after being detained for several days. She does not present the Covid passport and the Australian laws are clear, an exemption was worked on, but the commotion that was mounted stopped her. Nole spent the end of the year in Marbella, there are graphic testimonies that testify it, and he started from Malaga Course to Melbourne. In his first declaration to obtain the visa, he stated that he had not been in third countries. And if he had stayed several days in Spain, something that works against him. The Covid also happened, now it has been known, in mid-December and had some public activity being theoretically infected.

Djokovic (34 years old) lived in Monte Carlo, but he changed to Marbella for, among other reasons, because the school offer for his children Stefan, seven years old, and Tare, out of four, it was wider. Here already lived his younger brothers, Marko and Djordje, and some season had passed. Marko works at a tennis school on the premises of Roman bridge, which were directed by Manolo Santana and aims to host the next Davis Cup tie against Romania. School he co-directs with Pepe Imaz, a 47-year-old former Spanish tennis player who is a key figure in Djokovic’s life. He became a coach, “spiritual coach”, of the Serbian. In that relationship has come the best tennis of the Belgrade, although Imaz has some ideas that seem messianic from afar. He bases his teachings on love and is suspicious of traditional medicine, something that goes hand in hand with the tennis player’s refusal to get vaccinated.

In this pandemic, Djokovic has made people talk several times. The first section, the hardest, was spent in a spacious home for which he paid 10,000 euros per month. He bypassed strict confinement to go to training at Puente Romano. He had to apologize. When the measures were relaxed, he worked with the Malaga tennis player Alexander Davidovich, the Andalusian with the best ranking since the times of Manolo Orantes and Pepe Higueras, in the 80s. “In Spain we have trained together several times, we also have a good relationship, we get along, he is a great guy”, said Djokovic de Davidovich before they met at the Tokyo Games. The man from Malaga has always declared himself an admirer of the Serbian. “I can say that if on television he looks like a guy of 10, in person he is a guy of 20. Super nice to train with him, he makes everything very easy. The image that a professional has towards the public does not always coincide with reality, we do not know the private life of anyone, but in this case it has surprised me. I was all the time proposing to go play basketball, football, paddle tennis … “, said the cornerman after working with him.

Going to the Costa del Sol was also advised Bozidar Maljkovic, one of the most successful coaches in the history of European basketball, who bought a house in Marbella during his time in Malaga (1999-2003). He, in turn, went on the recommendation of Radomir Antic. Maljkovic is now president of the Serbian Olympic Committee and they have a close relationship, these days he came out in his defense due to the situation in Australia. He has made good friends with Carlos Gomez-Herrera, a tennis player from Malaga, now ranked 400 in the world and with whom he has sometimes played twice as much in a tournament. Installed in the select Sierra Blanca, not far from the center of Marbella, with views of the sea and the mountains and a house of 1,000 square meters built of a total of 3,500, with a tennis court and various luxuries, Djokovic invested 10 million euros in a mansion in which he makes life on horseback with Belgrade when the ATP circuit takes a break. There he will rest when the waters calm down after the storm generated in his controversial trip to Australia, still with chapters to write.