PARIS—While Novak Djokovic was already looking ahead to a potential record-extending 24th Grand Slam title, there was also time on Sunday for him to look back at what had shaped him as tennis’s most successful male player—hardship and adversity.
Djokovic, who clinched his 23rd men’s major title at the French Open on Sunday, grew up in war-torn Serbia before moving to Niki Pilic’s academy in Munich, Germany in 1999—one of two key encounters in his life.
