Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The New York Times
MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic, the men’s world No. 1 from Serbia, has been lifting up people from his homeland for years, but not usually like this. At the end of a practice session during last year’s Australian Open, Djokovic walked over to a waist-high fence where fans were packed 10-deep to watch him and hoisted a boy from the front of the crowd over the barricade and onto the court.
That boy, 8-year-old Novak Pokrajac, then got to play a few points with the man for whom he was named, including a 29-shot rally that ended with him hitting an overhead smash past Djokovic for a winner.