If tennis is a white sport, then it can be said that Serbian tennis is shrouded in black with the news of Jelena Genčić's death.
Jelena Genčić did not get the title of our most respected tennis coach just because she was Novak Djokovic's first coach. Before him, she trained Monika Seles, Iva Majoli, Mima Jaušovec, Goran Ivanišević...
As the federal captain of all women's tennis teams of Yugoslavia, she won fourth place at the Federation Cup in Sao Paulo, and she also achieved success as a coach of our players who made up the national team, but performed individually. She was the vice-president of the Tennis Association of Yugoslavia and the Partizan Tennis Club, and then the president of the Royal Tennis Club under the patronage of Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević.
Before becoming a tennis coach, Jelena Genčič was a tennis player herself, and during her tennis career she was the champion of Yugoslavia 32 times, in all categories of tennis.
She left her mark in our handball as well.
As a handball player, she was the goalkeeper of the national team in large handball, which was played on the football field, and as a member of the Yugoslav national team at the first world championship in small handball, which was held in Tašmajdan in 1957, she won a bronze medal. She received a national pension as a handball player.
Although she was an athlete to the core, sports were not her only field of interest.
She graduated from music high school in the piano department, and is an art historian by education. She explained her interest in philosophy by saying that "she didn't want someone to explain something to her."
She has worked at Television Belgrade since its inception, and joined it as a member of the "Belgrade" Cinema Club. She worked on television as an assistant director and director, on all shows, from Dnevnik to documentaries. She also worked in the school newsroom, but never in the sports one.
Jelena Genčić always considered the discovery of Novak Djokovic to be her greatest success in sports. In an interview for Vreme, she described how their first meeting at the tennis camp on Kopaonik went. (Whose are you, kid?Time No. 1066. June 9, 2011)
"I was working with the children on the fields and saw a boy hanging on the fence around the field and watching what we were doing." There were three courts next to each other and I noticed that the boy was circling and listening to what I was explaining to the players. In the end, I approached him and asked him if he knew what sport it was, and he told me that it was tennis. He also told me that he already held the racket in his hands. I asked him if he would like to join us, to which he replied, 'I've been waiting for you to ask me that.' We went out on the court and worked, and on the same day I realized that he was born for tennis. I asked him to introduce me to his parents. I thought they were guests on Kopaonik, not living there. The Djokovics are a sports family. Novak's father and mother are skiers and they opened a pancake house on Kopaonik so that they could be on the mountain during the winter and two summer months to ski and train. I told them that after Monika Seles, I haven't seen any player like their son and that I think he will be among the top five in the world at the age of 17. They were amazed by my claims, and now that I think about it, they must have thought that I was not normal''.
For Jelena Genčić, tennis was a very serious matter and she never hid it. She demanded the maximum from those she trained. Speaking to "Vreme" about how she trained Novak, she said:
"We worked hard, but we also played. His idol was Pete Sampras and he wanted to copy elements of his game. He wanted both Edberg's serve and volley, as well as Agassi's aggressive forehand. It was not very easy to achieve, but we worked on it. I think that his imitations of the way other tennis players play, which the audience loves so much today, come from that era. I forced him to enter the court about half a meter under the pretext that he was still small, but I actually did it because I thought that in the future, when he plays, tennis will be much more offensive than it was then. I was right, because tennis today is offensive, even bullying.
He was very thin, but I did not allow him to do weight training. I explained to him that he must not do this before the end of puberty because it will reduce his growth, and that fitness will bring him muscle volume, but it will reduce his speed and elasticity. The fact that he is tall, spindly and fast today shows that I was right.
I also insisted that regardless of the weather conditions, he always plays on an open field because he had to be aware of the field and get used to it. I never challenged him on what he did well, but I encouraged him to do better by saying, "That's good, but let's try to make it perfect." Since we're both perfectionists, that approach worked. The goal we were aiming for was to win Wimbledon.''
Jelena Genčić's prophetic words about Novak's sports career have come true.
However, it meant much more to her than the fact that she was right that Novak never forgot what she did for him, and that he emphasized in his interviews that without her he would not have become the best tennis player in the world.
Serbia's tendency to split hair was shown after Novak won Wimbledon, when articles appeared in our media that Novak did not come to her to thank her. Jelena Genčić then stated that she is sure that he will come to her, and that it is quite normal that after Wimbledon he should rest first. And this time she was right and television cameras recorded their meeting in Belgrade.
Although the New York Times stated that Jelena Gencic is one of the most successful tennis coaches in the world, she did not get rich because she never paid for her training, and at the time she played tennis it was an amateur sport and titles brought symbolic prizes. The fact that Jelena Genčić lived in a villa in Dedinje was because she came from an old Belgrade family. Therefore, it can be said that the death of Jelena Genčić represents the departure of a woman who symbolized the former spirit of Belgrade.
Jelena Genčić was born in 1936 as one of seven children. Father Jovan and mother Hermina are from a respectable family. Her grandfather Lazar Genčić studied medicine in Vienna, before returning to Serbia and becoming the country's first surgeon. After the outbreak of the First World War, he took an active role in the Serbian army, he was the head of medical services of the Supreme Command of the Serbian Army in 1912-1916, he survived the grueling war with the rank of general. Her grandfather's brother, Đorđe Genčić, was the mayor of Niš, then an important figure during the conspiracy related to the May coup. After the formation of a new government under Karađorđević, he was the Minister of National Economy, but he soon retired. He died in Belgrade in 1938. The Nikola Tesla Museum is located in his family house.
RSV
Novak Djokovic's visit to Jelena Genčić after Wimbledon. TV recording Studio B)
At the commemoration of Jelena Genčić on June 3, Novak Djokovic's letter to his first tennis teacher was read by his mother. The letter says: "You left an indelible mark on our tennis. All of us who are here today with a racket in our hands are indebted to you. I promise you that I will do my best to pass your name on to future generations and that your spirit will be eternally present on the tennis courts."
Novak Djokovic has canceled a planned press conference after his Roland Garros Round of 1 match against Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov on June 500. During and after the match with Grigor Dimitrov, Novak Djokovic did not know that his tennis teacher Jelena Gencic had suddenly passed away. His team hid that information in order to enter the duel with the Bulgarian tennis player relieved, who easily and quickly took revenge for the Madrid defeat, and with his XNUMXth victory reached the round of XNUMX of Roland Garros. The organizers of the tournament announced after the match that he will not address the journalists as a sign of respect for his former coach Jelena Genčić.
RSV
