Djokovic Serves Up Personality ... With Nipple Tassels

The nipple tassels were a little disturbing, I have to admit. Novak Djokovic, the world's third-ranked tennis player starts rolling up his shirt, and you don't know exactly what's about to happen. And he keeps rolling, and then ...

Well, it was impressive how he could get them to twirl in sync like that. I probably could have done without the granny-on-Djokovic stuff, too, as an old lady rubbed oil on his back, and ...

You have to check out this video Djokovic did to promote his new racket, from Head.




Dennis Rodman wore a wedding dress, but even he might cringe at this.

This might be a good time to talk about athletes showing a little class, but instead, I'm going to be honest: I laughed and cringed all the way through this. Four times. A few years ago people thought tennis players had no
personality. Now, maybe too much?

The good news is that maybe we're getting the old Djokovic back, the light-hearted Djokovic. Tennis fans know about his fantastic impressions of other players, copying all the little details of Maria Sharapova with the little jumping behind the baseline, high ball bounce and hair grooming before serving. He does Andy Roddick, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. (Yes, Rafa, you do keep reaching back and pulling your shorts out that way).

A couple years ago at the U.S. Open, during one of those post-match interviews they do over the public address system, the announcer handed him a ball and asked him to do some impressions, which he did. Every tennis player does that on his own. But Djokovic cut out the impressions because, he once said, "there were some, well, people and colleagues as well who didn't like what I do. So I just don't want to provoke negative vibes.''

It didn't work. Djokovic always provokes negative vibes, turning off touchy players and also ticking off a crowd at the Open. Last year, Andy Roddick, who has a strongly sarcastic sense of humor, made some crack about Djokovic claiming to have too many injuries, complaining of "a back and a hip and a cramp, bird flu, yeah, Anthrax, SARS, common cough and cold.''

It's true that Djokovic does seem to wilt too often. But he then beat Roddick, and told the crowd, "Obviously, Andy was saying I have 16 injuries. Obviously, I don't.''



The crowd booed.

"Like it or not,'' he said at the time, "it's like that. They're already against me because they think I'm faking everything. That's not nice anyhow (for Roddick) to say in front of this crowd that I'm faking and have 16 injuries.''

Djokovic became a grump. But maybe it's the best in-your-face possible to come back to people who think you're joking too much with...

Nipple tassels?

Well, the video shows Djokovic running out of a TV camera's view to track down an amazing shot. In slow motion from another camera, you see that he jumped into the crowd, stopped to flirt with a young woman, made her a balloon poodle, and then, well, it goes on and on before he actually hits the shot.

So maybe it's just marketing. Or maybe the old, likable Djokovic is coming back. After he lost to Nadal Sunday in Rome, he did his Nadal impression right there in front of Rafa.

"I can't win on the court,'' Djokovic said, "but I win the impression contest.''