Former Australian player Paul McNamee has known Novak Djokovic since the early days of his career. In a recent interview, McNamee revisited Djokovic’s imitation of Maria Sharapova and stated people thought the Serb was trying too hard to please others but that was not the case.

At the 2024 US Open, McNamee sat down for a chat about Djokovic with Sport Klub. He was the director of the Australian Open when Djokovic made his first appearance at the Slam. The 69-year-old has known the Serb for almost 20 years and wanted to highlight how he was before people tried to “mold” Djokovic into a celebrity.

McNamee referred to the time Djokovic imitated his friend Sharapova, which he did multiple times in 2013, much to the Russian’s amusement. However, according to the Aussie, people mistakenly thought the Serb was trying too hard to please others, but this was just Djokovic being himself, as he had been since his teenage years.

“He took the microphone and sang at the New Year’s party, he was friendly to everyone, so open and refreshing. That character of his later was pushed into the background,” McNamee said.

“When he imitated Sharapova and the others, people said that he was trying too hard to please others, but actually, that was Novak – that’s what I saw when he was a teenager, simply that’s how he was, open, that’s how he was before ‘Novak Djokovic’ became a celebrity.”

McNamee felt that “people tried to mold Djokovic into a certain pattern of behavior” after he achieved celebrity status and all these years have been “a challenge for him.”

“I was there for Novak Djokovic’s first Grand Slam match” – Paul McNamee

During the interview with Sport Klub, Paul McNamee revealed he first saw Novak Djokovic play at the qualifiers in Valencia. At the time, he was informed that two Serbian youngsters play very well – Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic.

McNamee has followed Djokovic since and was there when the Serb played his first Grand Slam match at the 2005 Australian Open.

“His first match at the Australian Open was in 2005 with Marat Safin, and I was the director of AO at the time, and I escorted him out on the court. If you watch that video, you will see me accompanying Novak and Marat to that match, so I was there for Novak’s first Grand Slam match.”

Djokovic entered the main draw through qualifying. However, he lost the match against Marat Safin, the eventual winner, 6-0, 6-2, 6-1. Djokovic lost in the first and fourth rounds in 2006 and 2007, respectively, before winning his first Australian Open title in 2008.