Paul McNamee: Novak’s imitation of Sharapova misunderstood – "It Was Purely Him"

Former Australian player Paul McNamee spoke about the iconic impersonation Novak Djokovic did of Maria Sharapova. The former doubles world No. 1 stated that Nole's impersonation made people perceive him as someone who tries too hard to please others.

However, according to McNamee, this is not the case with Nole. The Australian sat down to talk with Djokovic at the 2024 US Open with Sport Klub and has known Nole for 20 years (since his first appearance at the Australian Open, where McNamee was the director).

"His first match at the Australian Open was in 2005 against 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."

McNamee referred to the occasion when Djokovic impersonated his close friend Maria Sharapova, generating laughs during 2023. According to McNamee, people mistakenly thought Djokovic was only trying to please others: "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."