In 1999, Natto bombed, 12-year-old Djokovic exercised the BBC's call for Serbia's national hero.

BBC writes how Nato bombs shaped Novak Djokovich

Novak Djokovic's grandfather's home in Belgrade is like many others in the brutalist buildings. It was in that building that the best present tennis player in the world lived as a small child until Nato bombed the Serbian capital between March and June 1999.

Every time the sirens were dropped to warn the bombings, families would go down to the basement to guard against them.

That's the time Djokovic was appointed, writes the BBC, which has now won 15 grand Slome as champion.

While celebrating the 12th birthday in May 1999, the decade-long crisis was ruining the Balkans, and Belgrade was its centre. Twenty years later, there is still tension about the way Nato bombed Serbia for 11 weeks straight in trying to get Serb forces out of Kosovo, as she accused them of crimes against ethnic Albanians.

When you heard the alarm and the planes started buzzing, you could never know where the bombs would fall,” said Djordjeno Mileniq, an old man who was friend of Djokoviki's grandfather and still lives in the same block of buildings.

They bombed what they wanted. Coal damage, they told him. Bridges, hospitals, and even pregnant women died. ”

The sound of the key. It's too hard. ”

The BBC heads to Banjica, a residential area about seven kilometers south of downtown Belgrade. Residents describe it as the average “, the average”, populated by working class people with ethnic Serb background living in relatively poor dwellings.

Djokovic's grandfather Vlada, as briefly known to his relatives, lived in a two - bedroom resident until his death in 2012.

Now nobody lives there, but the owner has one of Djokovic's aunts, which neighbors believe lives in Switzerland.

However, it will always remain linked to Djokovic's story of how he managed to become one of the best tennis players in the world of all time.

Gjokoqi lived with his grandfather exactly because parents spent most of the time away from Belgrade working to secure money for their three sons, Periscopi translates.

This meant spending most of the year in Copaonic, a mountainous resort near Kosovo, more than four hours driving away from Belgrade.

During the day they gave lessons to ski while pizza served in the restaurant they had opened. Srdjan and Dijana worked without stopping to finance their son Novak's tennis career.

Speaking of how he suffered during the Nato bombings, Djokovici says those severe experiences in a way made him champion, made him stronger and more hungry for success.

Djokovic's coach during that time was an 18-year-old named Bogdan Obradovic. He is currently an MP in the Serbian parliament. He shows how he was shocked at preparing Kosovo-born tennis.

He was completely ready. He was warming up, had a bottle of water, a banana, a towel, everything. I've never seen anything like it from such a young child.”

Gjkovaqi had also been practicing during the time of bombing with his coach, and every day they had traveled to Belgrade to find a free field where they did not have to pay.

Human Rights Watch had found that a large number of Nato air strikes had been <x0 illegal>” and abusers in Serb civilians. And the wounds are still deep in Serbia, writes the BBC, translates Periscope, where there is still much resentment against Nato.

Kosovo remains a very hot topic. A political message appears at the Partizan Tennis Club where Djokovici “Kosovo is Serbia's holy ground. ”

Many people feel that Western media are obsessed with portraying Serbs with negative stereotypes like aggressive, unfriendly and hostile.

“People think we Serbs are bad,” says George Mitic, a 37-year-old taxi driver.

But they don't come to see this themselves. If you watch the news then take a completely different view. ”

Sasa Ozmo, a Serbian journalist, describes Djokovic as a national hero for the support he had given Croatia at the World Cup despite the great rivalry and great hatred that a part of Serbs feel toward them. /Periscope