Novak Djokovic’s long-time physio Miljan Amanovic survived “a severe heart attack” in 2017 that was caused by the stress and everything that comes with traveling full time on the ATP Tour.

When Djokovic was just starting his career in 2007, he met Amanovic and the two started working together. After achieving major success with his team, Djokovic’s form slumped after winning the 2016 French Open and that resulted in the Serb firing his entire team in early 2017.

A couple of months later, Amanovic suffered a heart attack. While Amanovic wasn’t working with Djokovic at the time, the stress and everything that accumulated during those 10 years left a toll on his body.

In a book written by Dominic Bliss and titled “Novak Djokovic: The greatest of all time,” that moment is explained. Later, Amanovic revealed that he was “resuscitated four times” and said it was “God’s will” that he survived his major health scare.

An excerpt from the book explains: “In 2017, when Novak made wholesale changes to his support team, Amanovic stopped working with him. That same year, the physio suffered a heart attack, brought on, he said, by the stress of travelling full-time on the ATP Tour.”Miljan Amanovic, Goran Ivanisevic, Marco Panichi and Carlos Gomez Herrera© Getty Images Sport – Daniel Pockett

Amanovic returned to Djokovic’s team

After abruptly firing his entire team, Djokovic returned to working with the same group of people who helped him achieve major success early in his career.

“I survived a severe heart attack. I was resuscitated four times. Now I can say that it was God’s will in the true sense of the word, because if only one link in the chain of events had not been in place that day, I would probably have left this earthly life. They say that they fought for me for 40 minutes,” Amanovic said.

In 2022, Djokovic announced Amanovic would no longer travel with him but would instead focus on work at the Novak Tennis Centre. But in 2023 January, Amanovic joined Djokovic’s team for the Australian Open.

During the tournament, Djokovic battled a hamstring tear but still managed to play and eventually win his 10th Australian Open title.

“Miljan is one of the closest people in my life. He has been working a lot these days, always gives his best,” Djokovic said after winning the 2023 Australian Open.