"Novak Djokovic's like this, he's stubborn sometimes" - Viktor Troicki revisits trying to prevent Serb from playing mixed doubles at Tokyo Olympics

Team Serbia's Olympic and Davis Cup captain Victor Troicki opened up about Novak Djokovic's adamant nature recently and how he has learned lessons from the experiences of his past to rectify his ways. Troicki mentioned how the Serb's nature got him playing the mixed doubles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics even though no one on the team wanted him to.

Troicki is a Serbian former professional player who reached a career-high ranking of 12 and won three singles and two doubles titles in his career. He also made at least to the third round of every Grand Slam.

The Serb recently sat down for an interview with CLAY where he spoke about the lessons learned by the World No. 2 from his failures at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Troicki mentioned that the 37-year-old had expended a lot of energy competing in mixed doubles whereas his focus was on singles but he said that the Serb has learned from his mistakes of the past.

The Serbian team's captain said that Djokovic's stubborn nature forced him to play the mixed double even though no one in the team wanted to.

He competed because he wanted to prove everyone wrong and Troicki also mentioned that the 24-time Major champion came very close in doing so as he reached the bronze medal match alongside Nina Stojanovic but withdrew from it to give his complete focus to singles.

"Well that’s one of the many mistakes he learned from," Troicki said. "He’s like this. He’s stubborn sometimes. Even if everyone tells him you shouldn’t play, if he thinks he should play, he will do it. And will try to prove everyone wrong. And he was close. He was close."

The 37-year-old ended up winning no medals in Tokyo.

Novak Djokovic's quest for gold will continue against Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2024 Paris Olympics

Novak Djokovic is in the quarterfinals (Image source: GETTY)

Novak Djokovic will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

After comfortably eliminating Matthew Ebden in the opening round and following it up with a strong performance against longtime rival Rafael Nadal, the Serb faced Germany's Dominik Koepfer. He comfortably ousted the German 7-5, 6-3 in an hour and 36 minutes to reach the quarterfinals.

On the other hand, after a topsy-turvy three-setter against Zizou Bergs in the opening round, Tsitsipas decimated Dan Evans in the second round. The Greek then faced Argentina's Sebastian Baez, who he comfortably ousted 7-5, 6-1.

The two men have faced each other 13 times in their careers with Djokovic leading 11-2 and also winning the last 10 matches. Their most recent match was in the final of the 2023 Australian Open where the Serb prevailed in straight sets.