In an interview with Spazio Tennis, tennis coach Renzo Furlan explained how Novak Djokovic helped him get a new job in Serbia in his tennis center. Furlan, who used to work for the Italian Federation, said: “In 2015, I was contacted by Novak Djokovic’s agent, Dodo Artaldi whom I already knew personally.
In Serbia, until that time there were no programmes for the younger players, who had to train privately. Novak, who clearly holds an important weight in his Federation’ choices, knew about my experience in the Italian Federation and so we came to this proposition that I welcomed with excitement.
“You work and you live very well. We follow the best players between 12 and 20 years of age and we are based in Belgrade, where we serve a part of the Djokovic’s tennis center, the “Novak Tennis Center”, a facility that features 14 courts.
My team does not feature a lot of people, which allows me to take decisions quickly and to focus on the court. Once a month, we do a report on the schedule and the work done at the top of the Federation.” What is the main difference in working between Serbian and Italian tennis? “The work is more or less the same even if the geography makes it easier.
In Serbia, there are just eight million inhabitants and almost all the players are coming from Belgrade, the country’s capital, and even Filip Krajinovic, who is not from there, moved as a young guy and the same is the for the younger talents.
In Italy, we have more centers and I could not have direct contact with coaches and athletes.”
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