News....The 'Djokovic', er...Serbian, Open, clothing sponsors and Fish

Well at the time I created a thread on here saying how surprisingly unsupported the 2012 Serbian Open was by....er, Serbian players.
Ticket prices were high, the top seed was around #40 ranking - it was no better than a Challenger event in effect.
So UNsurprisngly it looks like the event will be no more and is likely to move to Spain (maybe Nadal and Djokovic will play it instead of Smurf Blue? lol).
Anyway it appears Novak's uncle, Goran who was TD, has resigned from the event.

More interesting reading here: http://www.tennisgrandstand.com/archives/13751
So just how intereested are Serbians in tennis at large you wonder if they wouldnt support their own event?

It also appears that Novak has split from his clothing sponsor and moved to....UNIQLO (UNI-who?)!

On other fronts....has Fish got glandular fever? He's been out for 2 months and now has withdrawn from RG citing "fatigue". Hope he's not sidelined like Soderling appears to be with the same thing.
http://blogs.bettor.com/Mardy-Fish,-Robin-Soderling,-Andrea-Petkovic-and-others-withdraw-from-the-French-Open-Tennis-News-a156366

Poor Mardy, if he does have glandular fever at his age that could be the end of his career. Djoko needs to lessen the burdens off court so I wouldn't mind if he gave up on this serbian open thing, serbia economically was always going to be a tough market for an ATP event.

I would agree there socal, I think its time Novak started to have less family influence/involvement around his career.

Seems more tennis athletes are getting GF/mono these days...in Fish's case he had to work so hard to get the level of fitness needed to be near top 10, and he lost alot of weight too...that may have put a large strain on his immune system opening him to these types of viruses which when these players travel so much are quite easy to catch.

Yeah, lydian all these weird diets players are having cutting out this and that, and all the travel as well is going to increase chances of this thing happening. I mean airports and plane travel are about the best way of picking up nasty little bugs and in recent years it seems that glandular fever has taken a toll on the tour.

I think Novak doesn't have the option of cutting back his family involvement. Serbia has a battered economy and as the family and national hero he has to spread the wealth around as best as he can. My dad still supports about 12 or so of his extended family back in Iran and he wouldn't recognize half of them. There is a responsibility thing in the eastern mind and certain duty aspect to it. But I think this serbian open was too much of a drain on his energy and time and it was an inconvenient time in his schedule.

Hopefully, Novak gets with Nike, they market him better and pay him better so he doesn't have to worry about it. I would be very surprised if he doesn't end up with Nike in the end.

He can't get with Nike for the rest of his playing career, cause he just signed a 5y deal with Uniqlo, he'll be 30 by then.

As for helping Serbia, maybe Prince Albert II of Monaco can explain it better, since Djoko is resident there and does not contribute anything to Serbia, apart from a few charity events and donation, and a highly expensive Tennis Academy he owns and does not attend.

This Mono illness is getting silly, I do miss Soderling on tour, and apart from Delpo, he was the only hope of kicking this boring top 4 that has monopolized the ATP for years now.

Uniqlo do some very nice T-Shirts, great choice.

Nishikori was their primary ambassador until Djokovic just switched sides! (its a far Eastern brand)

Saw this exchange on twitter re Novaks change of clothes sponser

daniel kaplan
At long last rumors came to fruition, novak djokovic is splitting with sergio tacchini, one of the worst endorsements in history

Neil Harman
@dkaplanSBJ Was told categorically 3 weeks ago it was not true. Leaves a bitter taste

daniel kaplan
@NeilHarmanTimes every time I called got the same response. What a joke.

https://twitter.com/#!/neilharmantimes

Intriguing... I feel like a spy...




Nothing to do with this intrigue but I wanted to say at the time that the two outfits that Djokovic wore during Rome looked like a bad joke. I can also remember the last time I saw Nishikori play thinking that I liked what he was wearing. So with this change Djokovic might at least get some decent clothes to wear...


I doubt that Djokovic will get a contract with Nike in the near future as two players are taking up all the Nike tennis sponsership money. They would not want to pay out the sort of money that Djokovic should really be able to command. I wonder how he feels about that? It could be the sort of thing could be as damaging as a scary top spin forehand or an ace at break point.

He always looked a bit fuddy duddy in that old fashioned Sergio gear. Maybe we'll see him step out onto the green lawns of South West London sporting some sartorial elegance...they have the jackets for it.
http://www.uniqlo.com/us/product/men/tops/jacketcoat

Couldn't care less about a clothes sponsor but the Serbian Open story is of interest.

Henman Bill. I take it you are no fashionista?

This is Novaks new kit

http://twitpic.com/9oqktd

I suppose it's OK. I hope it's got an eagle on the back.

Now it seems Montfils has pulled out of the FO.

No prizes for spotting the deliberate mistake by Yahoo sports

http://eurosport.yahoo.com/tennis/