Read an interview with our guest Dušan Lajović winner of the 30th edition of the ATP tournament in Umag

Serbian tennis player Dusan Lajovic is the winner of the 30th edition of the ATP tournament in Umag. By winning, Lajovic became the first Serbian tennis player to win ATP tournament in Umag (in 2006 current first world player Novak Djokovic handed the match in the Umag final to Stan Wawrinka).

We had the great honor of hosting ATP Tournament winner Dusan Lajovic and his wonderful family at Villa Ana during the most successful week of his career. Read the interview below in which Dusan described his stay in Karigador and what it is like to be an ATP winner.

Congratulations once again on the winning the ATP Title!

We got inspired by your story and connection with your family by winning ATP Title while spending your family holiday in Istria.

This is the first time you spend your family holiday in Istrian villa in our Banistra Villa Ana. How did you liked it and did it influence your game?

We had wonderful time staying at the Villa. Usually i am staying in the tournament’s official hotel, but this year i wanted to change things up a little bit and it worked well. Also i had my family and my cousins with their kids so it was a perfect mix of work and leisure.

Can you tell us who was your biggest support in your tennis career and what is means for you?

Well thru my whole career my parent were always with me and always believed in me even when i myself was doubting sometimes if i chose the right path they supported me, so I would say that it is the most important thing in a sport where you need to have such a strong support.

Did your family had an influence (and what kind) in selecting your career path or it was only your decision?

Well I think that they would support me in any job i would have chosen, but also at the time i was deciding if im gonna use tennis to get scholarship in the USA and continue my education there or simply try to become a pro they stood by me and told me that no matter what i choose they will support me but that tennis was something i dreamed of doing as a kid so the decision was not hard to make.

How did you know that you wanted to be a professional tennis player?

Actually funny story, i wanted to start playing football as a kid and probably as every kid from our area but there were no lessons for that age group and there was only tennis which i knew nothing about. And after the first lesson that was it.

What would you be if you were not a tennis player?

I always had a lot of interests so it would be tough to know exactly from this perspective which path i would choose but i believe it would have to do something with technology or some kind of science.

Would you encourage kids and young people to start playing tennis, and what would you tell them what is the hardest thing that you had to discover on your own skin?

I definitely would encourage them to play any kind of sports especially nowadays when its tough to get kids out of the house and play outside, but if they choose tennis just remember that this is sport and if you want to become a professional tennis player it is a beautiful job where you travel the world to do your job but it is also very hard and you have to stay extremely professional and you need to believe in yourself and believe that you can be like the players you see on tv.

Finale -30-plava -laguna -croatia -opena -umag -2-1