The curtain has gone down at the Serbia Open 2022 at the courts of the TC “Novak”. The weather was cold and rainy at the start of the tournament but, as the days went by, the sun started to shine and warm up both the hearts of tennis players because of the support they were getting, as well as tournament officials when they realised that the audience has recognised their effort.
In the past week, Belgrade was the centre of the tennis world and the tournament held in the Serbian capital, with almost full stands through all the stages, from the qualifiers to the end of the tournament, was broadcast in more than 100 countries.
Serbia Open tournament officials have invested a lot of effort to place Belgrade back on the tennis map of the world. When world No. 1 Novak Đoković’s has your back, no other outcome seems possible. The tournament statistics sums up all the events that took place by the Danube River in the past week.
At the ceremony held after the trophy handover, the tournament director Đorđe Đoković said:
“I would like to express gratitude to everyone who participated at this event. A large number of people took part in the organisation of the tournament. I would like to thank everyone, more than 40,000 people visited the Centre, and they have all made their contribution to our One Ticket-One Tree campaign. I thank our finalists, Đoković and Rublev. In the first place, I would like to thank Novak for everything he has done. I know how hard it was. I love you, brother. It was a great honour to have Rublev here. We are glad to have him. I hope we’ll see him again next year.”
After the big tennis final, Belgrade audience greeted Novak Đoković’s former coaching team, including Marian Vajda, Gebhard Phil Gritsch and Miljan Amanović, as well as Novak’s first tennis mentor Nikola Pilić, with ovations. All four of them have stepped on the court to greet the audience impressed by the tournament. Vajda, Gritsch and Amanović have thanked Novak Đoković for their years-long collaboration and wished him many more trophies in the coming years.
“I thank Nole for the last 15 years. I’ve enjoyed everything most of the time. Half of the time. Secondly, I would like to extend my gratitude to the Đoković family who selected me at the beginning of Novak’s career and I also thank my family for their support. Last but not least, I would like to thank myself for surviving. I’ll always be by Novak’s side at key moments and when key decisions are made. Thank you all very much,“ Marian Vajda concluded.
