Djokovic Meets Australia’s Mascot, The Koala

Novak Djokovic admires the simplicity, the restorative aspects of the koala lifestyle. The irresistible animals rarely stray from their eucalyptus trees in eastern Australia and sleep for up to 18 hours a day.

Djokovic, however, the No. 2 player in the FedEx ATP Rankings, doesn’t think it’d be such a good idea for him or Team Serbia to act more like koalas at the ATP Cup in Brisbane.

“I don’t think the koala lifestyle would help us tennis players a lot, even though at times we could definitely learn something from them,” Djokovic said on Wednesday while standing next to a couple of cuddly koalas at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. “Sometimes the simple things are the best things, just relaxing and being present, kind of recuperating and being outdoors, being in the nature.”

Serbia’s No. 1 grew up exploring nature and the Serbian mountains, and that’s where Djokovic learned to appreciate wildlife and animals.

“I love animals, spending times close to them but respecting their space, which I think is very important because we sometimes as people try to act as the most dominant species, which we consider ourselves to be. But I truly believe we all should live in harmony and respect and there is a higher order of nature that we should all be aware of,” Djokovic said. “I’m very close to a koala at the moment. I see that they’re sleeping and resting so I don’t want to disturb them too much but it’s definitely a very unique experience.”

Djokovic and his ATP Cup teammates Dusan Lajovic, Nikola Milojevic, Nikola Cacic and Viktor Troicki have been adapting the koala lifestyle at times – enjoying each other’s company off the court and relaxing away from the tennis. But they’ve been employing their usual routines – those of hard-working tennis players – most of the time Down Under.

Serbia plays its first match on Saturday against South Africa.

“Many, many different things that we can do also off the court as well we get to enjoy. We stay together and play different sports. We spend quality time and it’s fun, because the concept of ATP Cup is a team concept, team format, and so it does give us an opportunity to represent our country and be a part of the team which is not something that we do experience throughout the year very often,” Djokovic said.