Former World No. 1, Andy Roddick, recently talked about the rise of Novak Djokovic and how he successfully disrupted Roger Federer’s and Rafael Nadal’s dominance at the top of the tennis helm.
The 2003 US Open Champion, Andy Roddick recently launched his podcast named, ‘Served with Andy Roddick’ where he opines on the various news and topics floating around tennis.
In the latest episode on his channel, one of the topics Roddick touched on was the GOAT debate and how the meteoric rise of Novak Djokovic shocked the entire tennis world. The former American player compared Novak to Yoko Ono. According to the rumours, Yoko was the one responsible for the ‘Beatles’ split-up.
Similarly, in the case of tennis, it was Djokovic who came out of nowhere to disband Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer at the top.
“I feel like Novak Djokovic is the guy who broke up The Beatles, He is like tennis’ Yoko [Ono]. He is the one who we didn’t want, didn’t need. We had the rivalry, we had the lefty-righty. We had the contrasting styles,” Roddick said.
Roddick would also compare the Serbian to a cyborg robot with emotions, someone who just did not care about the stature or paid any heed to the hype and just flexed upon them.
“Then all of a sudden, this cyborg robot, but also someone who plays with a lot of emotion, comes in and is like, I’m not buying into the hype. I am complete. You can’t go through me, you can’t go around me. I’m gonna take the punches from these guys’,” he added.
“It was weird. It was almost like the kind of the mainstream not tennis-centric fan was kinda mad at him for it”.
Novak Djokovic, nominated for the prestigious Laureus World Sportsman of the Year 2024
The reigning World No. 1, Novak Djokovic, continues to make headlines in 2024 as he was announced as one of the nominees for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award, in 2024.
The Serbian has already been awarded the title four times in his career (2012, 2015, 2016 and 2019). If the Serbian adds another one this year, he will tie his former rival Roger Federer, who also won the award five times in his career.
He expressed his gratitude towards Laureus Sport and congratulated other fellow nominees for being nominated in this category.
“It’s an honor to be nominated for @LaureusSport 2024 World Sportsman of the Year,” Djokovic wrote on X. “A special group to be a part of, congratulations to my fellow nominees @ErlingHaaland, @mondohoss600, @LylesNoah, @Max33Verstappen, #LeoMessi #Laureus24,” Djokovic tweeted.
