"They broke rackets, argued, punched each other": Former Romanian ATP player sheds light on relationship between Djokovic and Gulbis

Former Romania tennis player Cosmin Georgescu has revealed the relationship between Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Latvian’s Ernests Gulbis.

Both players attended the same academy during the early stage of their careers.

Georgescu was quoted in a report where he stated that the relationship between the two was interesting.

"Djokovic knew Pilic and after a while, Ernest Gulbis arrived,” he said. “Two different characters, Djokovic and Gulbis. Completely different but when they were both on the field, no one could take them off until after 6-8 hours of training a day. They broke rackets, argued, punched each other, always punched each other. Two ambitious characters as rarely meet, proud and determined.”

Interestingly, both players had very different career trajectories despite starting at the same academy.

Gulbis has only won six titles in his career despite turning pro in 2004. His best record in any of the Grand Slams was a semifinal appearance in the French Open in 2014 where he lost to the current world number two with a score of 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

On the other hand, Djokovic is the most successful player in the history of the men’s singles category in the Open era, having won 23 Grand Slam titles.

While doing that, the 36-year-old won 10 Australian Open, three French Open, seven Wimbledon and three US Open titles.