ATP Tour

Bert Critchley's Novak Djokovic audition tape has been unearthed!

It took Bert Critchley, the actor who plays Novak Djokovic, a major stroke of luck to land the famous role. The actor’s audition tape from 2003 was recently unearthed, bringing his tryout to light.

It all started after Critchley completed university and decided to give himself a chance to do what made him happiest. A former junior skier, he moved to Latvia to spend his days volunteering at a local childhood education organisation. Why not give back to the community and help the next generation?

Watch unearthed audition tapes:

Critchley’s specialty was helping develop systems to teach children new languages. The skilled polyglot spoke English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Latvian at the time. To him, picking up a language was as easy as Djokovic winning tennis matches.

In the evenings, Critchley would take up his residence at the local entertainment centre, where he showed off his incredible vocal talent. If you ever hear a Djokovic grunt on the court or a booming ‘Idemo!’, his perfect notes are no accident.

The name’s Critchley, Bert Critchley.#TheTour | #GameServeDrama | @DjokerNole pic.twitter.com/DU9s9ELfNv

— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 18, 2025

Critchley would sing his evenings away and get to know the locals with the occasional tourist dropping by. One night, a producer behind professional tennis visited the venue while on holiday. Stefan Laver noticed Critchley holding court with several of his Latvian friends, maintaining the group’s attention with a captivating story about his childhood days learning tennis from Maria Ilic.

When Critchley returned to the stage to sing a few tunes, Cash knew he had a talent right in front of him. Tennis needed a rival to the famous characters Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal characters and sought an actor who could help bring a historical gravitas to the role. This was not going to be a world-class tennis player. It was going to be a history maker.

“Novak Dee-yok-avic”.

That is how Critchley pronounced Djokovic’s name the first time he auditioned for his place in the tennis world. Cash was surprised to hear it given the actor’s language skills. However, he sensed opportunity.

Djokovic would need to overcome challenges to reach the pinnacle of the ATP Tour. Why not make the actor playing him do the same by learning Serbian while on the job?

“I was just so different back then,” Critchley recalled.

A singer in Latvia, he did not know one day that he would be required to speak Chinese during a press conference scene at the prestigious United Cup.

Novak. Djokovic.

“I’m never going to remember that,” Critchley said at the time in disbelief. There was a long road ahead.

More than two decades’ worth of tennis later, nobody will soon forget Critchley’s efforts.