23. 12. 2011. ยท Photo: BBC
Serbian tennis star and world no.1 Novak Djokovic, who won three of four Grand Slams in 2011, has been named BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year.
Novak won his first 41 matches of the year and deposed Spaniard Rafael Nadal as world number one.
In addition to winning the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open, the 24-year-old Belgrade native picked up another seven titles (Dubai, Belgrade and 5 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophies).
He beat Barcelona star Argentine Lionel Messi and German Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel to the award.
It is the sixth time in the past eleven years that a tennis player has won the award and the winner was decided by a panel of sports editors from national and regional newspapers and magazines.
Novak follows in the footsteps of Rod Laver (1969), Arthur Ashe (1975), Bjorn Borg (1979), Jimmy Connors (1982), Boris Becker (1985), Andre Agassi (1992), Goran Ivanisevic (2001), Roger Federer (2004, 2006-07) and Rafael Nadal (2010).
His climb to the top of the world rankings ended a period of more than seven years when the position no.1 had been held by either Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal.
