The 31-year-old superstar was named the Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award ahead of French football World Cup star Kylian Mbappe, F1 star Lewis Hamilton, marathon world record breaker Eliud Kipchoge, Croatian footballer Luka Modric and NBA royalty LeBron James.
But it was Djokovic’s comeback from an injury ravaged 2017 season to win two grand slams which stole the award.
Between 2011 and 2016, Djokovic won 11 of the 24 grand slams, including holding all four titles at the same time over from Wimbledon in 2015 to the French Open in 2016.
However, a tough start to 2017 appeared to weigh on Djokovic and ultimately he split with his long time coach before skipping the US Open due to an elbow injury.
It was an injury which saw him miss the back end of the 2017 season and took some time for the Serbian superstar to get back to form after going through elbow surgery after being knocked out of the Australian Open in the quarterfinals.
While accepting his award as the Sportsman of the Year, Djokovic admitted it was his wife Jelena who had helped him back after his darkest moments.
“I would like to thank my wife for taking time and for presenting me in a different light and I think that the rare occasions we can share our personal journeys and who we are behind the curtain and I think you’ve done it much better than I would do it,” he said.
“Your support has been tremendously significant to me in those moments when I was questioning everything, when I was going through my doubts and dilemmas whether I want to keep on playing tennis. And yes I did think about leaving tennis and I did think about everything else and I just didn’t find myself in a good balance in life at that point.
“I did feel like I let myself down when I had surgery you were right and it took me several months to find that purpose, find the meaning again.”
Since returning to top form, Djokovic won Wimbledon, the US Open and his seventh Australian Open title when he dismantled Rafael Nadal.
Jelena was in the crowd as Djokovic addressed her directly to thank her with the pair dominating the social media from the event.