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The top male tennis player in the world has been honored by his native country with a series of stamps. Novak Djokovic tweeted “I’m humbled!” in response to the new stamps from Serbia. “An honour to receive my very own Serbian stamp. Thank you to my generous country for this rare gift!”
Agence France-Press (AFP) reports the 34-year-old athlete attended the ceremony launching the stamps this past Thursday (December 16, 2021).
The stamp is also mentioned near the top of Djokovic’s website.
The Post of Serbia says it is the first time it has honored an athlete on a stamp. “The stamps represent an athlete … the best tennis player of today and the best athlete in the history of Serbian sports,” the postal agency’s statement said.
Djokovic is also a “great humanist and philanthropist” it said, referencing his education foundation that it said “helped reconstruct 48 kindergartens and supported more than 2,200 teachers in their work throughout Serbia.”
Wimbledon 2019. Photo by Peter Menzel, edited by Petar Milošević.
Djokovic was born May 22, 1987, in Belgrade in what was then Yugoslavia. He has won 20 major tennis tournaments, three of them this year — Australian, French and Wimbledon. He missed the fourth, the U.S. Open, after losing in the finals. He
was named the Association of Tennis Professionals’ top-ranked player for the seventh time, more than any other player in history.
He has not yet announced whether he will participate in the next Australian Open, which requires players to be fully vaccinated. Djokovic has not said whether he has received the coronavirus vaccinations.
He and his wife Jelena have two children. “Now Jelena Djokovic and I will take some stamps home for the kids to write to Santa,” he said. On his foundation’s website, he added that he is happy to help encourage children to write letters and postcards. “Our Foundation receives many letters every day from children and their teachers throughout Serbia.”
The artwork for the stamps is by Boban Savic.
The Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) and Wikipedia also contributed to this article.
Interesting to know, why they informed us that it is first time because we have it on Serbia from 2008 year (Scott 424-428), set of 5 values, and one is with Novak Djokovic’. Next come from 2009 year FINA Swimming Championship – Rome, set of 3, Scott 484-486, so, strange …..
Unfortunately for those who may have attended the December 16, 2021 ceremony, media reports are that Djokovic tested positive for COVID-19 the previous day but attended the ceremony anyway, not wearing a mask. Hopefully he didn’t infect too many people. No wonder that Australia doesn’t want him to enter their country.