Novak Djokovic Says Sports Has Become Too Much Business

Published 07/22/2019, 2:54 PM EDT

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World No.1, Novak Djokovic talks about sports becoming more of a business in the past few years with players losing the quintessence of why they started to play the sport.

In an interview with Jay Shetty, Novak Djokovic gave his opinion on how modern-day sports are progressively becoming a business in recent times.

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The Serbian said, “Today sport became a business industry too much in my opinion, in certain sports, and so it’s very important to keep intact the essence of why you started playing the sport.”

The world no. 1 further added that he keeps reminding himself that these negotiations and endorsements only give you worldly success. He added, “I keep on reminding myself because the industry is so big and you have too many temptations and endorsement deals that make your life materialistically better.”

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Novak Djokovic also feels that many sportspeople are chasing those materialistic things and the outside forces sell their talent in the industry which stops their personal growth.

The Serb continued, “I think too many athletes in their life chase that and they are probably not even deciding but family, agents and the whole world revolves around their talent that can be sold in this industry that’s where maybe you lose a bit of contact with your development.”

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He further justified his opinion as he felt the same in his career and also while watching the other athletes. “That’s what I felt a little bit in my example and also watching at other athletes,” Novak Djokovic said.

Novak Djokovic has also mentored some young tennis players from Serbia and he knows what they have been going through and how materialistic things reflect on them. “I was mentoring also some tennis players from Serbia and seeing what they have been going through,” he said. “I see it how it reflects and it would really be interesting to read the stories.”

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Written by:

Varun Khanna

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Starting off as a tennis author in 2018, Varun Khanna has gone on to contribute to EssentiallySports in various capacities. After setting up interviews with the likes of Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou, Alizé Cornet, and Noah Rubin, Varun is now part of all major ATP and WTA press conferences and has gone on to pen more than 1300 articles for EssentiallySports. He now heads the tennis and NBA division of the organization.
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