{"id":7804,"date":"2025-06-23T10:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T10:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/7804\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T10:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T10:58:09","slug":"he-is-the-first-player-to-ever-beat-novak-djokovic-at-wimbledon-who-eventually-went-on-to-coach-nick-kyrgios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/7804\/","title":{"rendered":"He is the first player to ever beat Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon who eventually went on to coach Nick Kyrgios"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Novak Djokovic is one of, if not the greatest tennis player of all time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, even legends have to start from somewhere, and his beginnings on the tennis tour were far from easy.<\/p>\n

Everybody knows the hugely inspiring story of the 39-year-old who emerged from war-torn Serbia to become the man he is today, but it\u2019s also worth remembering the battles he overcame once he had emerged, but had not yet become a problem.<\/p>\n

After all, frequent retirements and explosive outbursts became the norm for the former world number one, unable to make that next step to become a true contender.<\/p>\n

His journey as a professional player started all the way back in 2003, and he was gifted his first appearance at Wimbledon<\/a> just two years later.<\/p>\n

When was Novak Djokovic\u2019s first-ever Wimbledon appearance?<\/strong><\/p>\n

2005 was a landmark year for Novak Djokovic<\/a>, who made a main draw appearance in every single Grand Slam throughout the year.<\/p>\n

And whilst he has gone on to become the greatest champion in the history of the Australian Open, the relationship he shares with Wimbledon feels perhaps even more special.<\/p>\n

\"DayPhoto by Jed Jacobsohn\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

A seven-time winner at the All-England Club, he has since been heralded as a hero after years where he was perhaps lambasted for that aforementioned temper.<\/p>\n

For a first-timer though, back 20 years ago now, Djokovic actually impressed.<\/p>\n

In the first round, he swept aside the Argentine Juan M\u00f3naco in straight sets, before he fell into a two sets to love deficit in the second round against Guillermo Garc\u00eda L\u00f3pez.<\/p>\n

But, offering a glimpse of that undying spirit that he would later become famed for, the 24-time Grand Slam champion would turn it around to win in five sets.<\/p>\n

It could be argued that such a monumental effort had taken it out of him, as the teenager was then defeated in four tough sets by the ninth seed S\u00e9bastien Grosjean.<\/p>\n

How good was Sebastien Grosjean?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Grosjean may not have cemented his spot in history with any Grand Slam titles, the Frenchman still enjoyed an impressive career laden with strong runs.<\/p>\n

And, at the very least, he is the only person in the world who can say that he gave Djokovic, who later became a seven-time Champion at the event, his first Wimbledon loss.<\/p>\n

The pinnacle of Grosjean\u2019s career came in Paris where he won the Masters 1000 event, but he also made runs to the semi-finals of the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon twice.<\/p>\n

\"TOPSHOT-TENNIS-AUS-ATP\"Photo by PATRICK HAMILTON\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He was a truly competent player, and would translate his skills into coaching upon retirement.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the 47-year-old has more recently taken up a part-time position assisting Nick Kyrgios<\/a> in his comeback this year, having enjoyed spells with Richard Gasquet and Arthur Fils.<\/p>\n

Given that Kyrgios\u2019 relationship with Djokovic<\/a> seems to be one of great friendship nowadays, Grosjean adding another link between them is an interesting twist of fate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic is one of, if not the greatest tennis player of all time. However, even legends have…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[6532,9125,9126,62,1464,67,132,68,2071],"class_list":{"0":"post-7804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-nick-kyrgios","9":"tag-novak-djokovic","10":"tag-sebastien-grosjean","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-wimbledon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114732328813918423","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}