Danish teenager defeats Novak Djokovic to announce himself on the world stage
With a young Danish teenager fighting for his life, the eyes of the world are on a young man who has never even played a competitive match and who is not yet 18-years-old. Just last year, this 18-year-old would have been hailed as a potential world-beater. Three months ago, this young man was in a coma.
Just last week, his family received this news. In the last 24 hours, he underwent major brain surgery and will not return to normal life at all.
The tournament was supposed to be a turning point. But his family has now learned that his father was found dead a couple of days ago.
And, as the tournament ended, the entire world lost a shining star.
This boy who is still in the hospital is not yet 18-years-old. Who is he? And why does he live with the fear of death?
At the end of November, with Djokovic’s Wimbledon campaign behind him, and with Andy Murray’s clay season winding down in the United States, Djokovic was set to join Rafael Nadal for the season-ending clay-court championships. And even before he started losing in the second round in Australia, this young Dane was set to take off on a world tour.
His dream was set to be realized.
Djokovic had gone into the Australian Open in a heady manner, having won his first title ever at the Australian Open a few months earlier. Then he took his first ATP World Tour final round in almost a year.
He started his season at the Australian Open, defeating American Milos Raonic in the round of 16 and reached the quarterfinals before losing to Marin Cilic. He then went on to the Wimbledon final, losing to Roger Federer in a third-set tie-break.
And though it was not on the scale of his first win at the tournament, it was enough to make many tennis fans consider this 18-year-old a possible world-beater.
But it was already clear that this young man was ill.
When Djokovic started off the year, it was to a win over Andy Murray. Since then, it’s been a slow decline in results. His season was not looking like it could come to an end
