Australian tennis great Mark Woodforde has recalled an incredible exchange with a young Novak Djokovic where the Serbian was denied a place at the Adelaide International.
The incident occurred in the years before Djokovic won the competition in 2007 when he applied for a wildcard entry into the tournament but was denied by Woodforde, who was then co-director of the tournament along with Peter Johnston.
Woodforde, a 16-time Grand Slam doubles champion, recalled how Djokovic walked into his office alongside his coach, Dejan Petrovic.
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“I was running the event with Peter Johnston and we were sitting in the office the day before qualifying started and in came Dejan with Novak Djokovic,” he told Nine’s coverage of the Adelaide International.
Djokovic celebrates after beating Chris Guccione in the final of the 2007 Adelaide International (Mark Dadswell via Getty Images)
“He introduced himself to both Peter Johnston and me and said, ‘I’m happy to be here in Adelaide and I was hoping you’d give me a wild card.’
“Peter and I looked at each other, we had already dealt our wildcards in the main draw. Novak said, ‘Because one day I’m going to become No. 1 in the world and I think this would help me get started,'” and we just smiled and said, ‘Unfortunately, we don’t have room.’
“Dejan, who I’ve known for a number of years, just said, ‘He really thinks he’s going to be No.1’ and we just had to apologize and say we had to reserve some of the wildcards at the time for the Aussies.
“I said, ‘We’ll at least try to get you into the rankings,’ and he said, ‘But I want to be in the main draw because I’m going to be No. 1 in the world.’
Djokovic made his first official return to Australian courts on Monday in a doubles competition (Sarah Reed via Getty Images)
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t even qualify him that year, but that’s the belief that Novak Djokovic had at a very early age, that he was going to achieve great things.”
The rejection did not stop Djokovic from returning to Adelaide, where he defeated Australian Chris Guccione to claim the third of his 130 career titles in January 2007.
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Djokovic returns to Adelaide this year, returning to Australia 12 months after being infamously deported on the eve of the 2022 Australian Open due to his vaccination status.
The 21-time Grand Slam champion will begin his international campaign in Adelaide on Tuesday afternoon when he takes on France’s Constant Lestienne as the men’s No. 1 seed in the tournament.
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