Novak Djokovic is not only the most successful male player in tennis history but also the sport’s highest earner.
His incredible haul of 24 Grand Slam titles, including seven Wimbledon wins, has earned him an estimated £143m in prize money over the past 20 years. Of course, he could add another £2.7m to that total if he lifts his eighth Wimbledon title later this month.
However, it’s not just tournament wins that contribute to Djokovic’s wealth. The 37-year-old has numerous sponsorship deals that generate millions, including those with Asics, Head, Hublot, Lacoste and Peugeot.
Add to that his deals with Lemero, NetJets, Raiffeisen Bank International and Ultimate Software Group, and Djokovic’s net worth is boosted to a staggering £189.8m according to Celebrity Net Worth.
The tennis star met his wife, Jelena, while in high school in Serbia and the couple began dating in 2005, before marrying in the summer of 2014 at the Aman Sveti Stefan Resort, a five-star hotel resort in Montenegro.
The 38-year-old is a businesswoman and global CEO of the Novak Djokovic Foundation (NDF), a charity she co-founded with her husband that strives to achieve equal access to early childhood education. Together, the couple have two children, Stefan, nine, and Tara, six.
Their marriage has not always been smooth sailing, however, with speculation around their relationship overshadowing Djokovic’s success at Wimbledon in 2019, as Jelena failed to attend any of his matches. While they put this down to Tara being too young to attend, speculation continued to mount with John McEnroe having previously put a poor run of form for the Serbian star down to “off-court issues with the family”.
McEnroe even compared his downward slide to the scandal that once surrounded Tiger Woods, remarking: “Woods had the issues with his wife and then he seemed to go completely off the rails and has never been even close to being the same player. So we’re starting to say: ‘Wait a minute, is this possible with him, Djokovic?'”
While Djokovic was taken aback by those comments, he diplomatically responded: “He has his right to say the things he wants to say. I don’t necessarily need to agree with that. But it’s his right.”
The following year, Jelena admitted she struggled with the public attention she gets from being married to the tennis superstar and was uncomfortable with being so in the limelight.
“When you are young, the spotlight and attention certainly feel comfortable,” she told Vesti-Online. “At first, the experience does not alarm you because it can bring you some difficulties. We look at public figures and think that kind of publicity is OK.
“But as time goes on, you lack anonymity, you lack the privacy to be able to do whatever you like at any time, in any situation. I try to resist all these expectations to always be myself and for Novak to be able to be himself. That is probably why I am being criticised by the public ‘why didn’t I wear makeup’ or ‘why wasn’t I always wearing heels’.”
