BOJANA JOVANOVIC ON HOW SHE TURNED CHALLENGES INTO TRIUMPHS


“It’s really important to have a sense of purpose and meaning in whatever I do. I can’t just do things without a deeper reason or understanding behind them.”


BOJANA JOVANOVIC

Bojana Jovanovic’s journey is one of resilience, passion, and constant self-discovery. Born and raised in Belgrade, her love for sports was ingrained in her early on.

She was influenced by her parents—her father, a former professional footballer, and her mother, an avid skier and handball player. Yet, her path has been far from easy.

At the tender age of six, Bojana was diagnosed with cancer, a battle that not only tested her physical strength but also shaped her perspective on life. It was a story she kept quiet for many years, only recently sharing it publicly to inspire others facing similar challenges.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

Throughout her childhood, Bojana explored various sports—from ballet to gymnastics and swimming—but tennis eventually became her sanctuary, a place where she found solace amidst the pressures of life.

As she grew older, her love for the sport deepened, even though an untimely injury derailed her professional aspirations.

Despite these setbacks, Bojana never lost her passion, instead channelling her energy into new avenues like Padel and social media, where she now shares her journey and insights with a growing audience.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

Her story goes beyond sports. Bojana speaks openly about her struggles with bullying during her recovery from Cancer, the role of family in her healing, and her evolving understanding of herself through the study of psychology.

Her vulnerability is a cornerstone of her message, encouraging others to embrace their imperfections and challenges.

Through her platforms, she aims to break the stigma around difficult topics, particularly in the Balkans, and show that even after life’s hardest battles, we can all rebuild and thrive.

Bojana is incredibly proud of her roots and credits her country for installing her with a determination to never give up in the face of adversity. Despite a life that now takes her around the world, it is coming home to see her family in Belgrade which means more to her than anything.

“I love Serbia deeply, and I’m incredibly happy and grateful to be from here,” she explains. “I cherish our people and our spirit. Our country has been through a lot of wars and hardships, and as a nation, we have suffered tremendously. I believe that this history and the resilience of my people have given me strength in my life.

“My parents have done everything they could while raising me and my brother, and they continue to be our greatest support. They always will be. However, as much as I love travelling, I always look forward to coming back home. There’s a special feeling about being in Belgrade.”

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

Throughout our interview, we explore Bojana’s journey from a Cancer survivor to an athlete, social media influencer, and advocate for mental health and personal growth. We also delve into her passion for Padel, and her deep connection with her family, particularly the bond with her brother, who is both her best friend and manager.

Through it all, Bojana remains focused on one key mission: inspiring others to overcome their fears, embrace vulnerability, and live authentically.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

ALWAYS MY BIGGEST PROTECTOR

I was born and raised in Belgrade, and it’s still my home base here in Serbia. My parents are also from Belgrade, and my love for sports comes from them. My entire family is involved in sports—my father played professional football when he was younger, and my mother was into skiing and handball.

My first experience with sports started with ballet when I was in kindergarten, probably around the age of three or four. After that, I trained in gymnastics, swimming, and then volleyball. When I was 10, I started playing tennis, initially just for fun with friends. I wasn’t like Novak Djokovic, who knew from an early age that tennis was his calling. I gradually fell in love with the sport over time.

But something that really shaped who I am today happened when I was six. I had cancer. I hadn’t spoken much about this part of my life until about two years ago when I shared my story for the first time on a Serbian podcast.

Before that, I was scared to talk about it. It was a huge part of my family’s life, but I didn’t want people to pity me because of what I’d been through. I wanted to show that even after such challenges, you can still achieve incredible things.

The first time we found out about the cancer was in 2004. My parents knew more than I did at the time, and I was too young to fully understand what was happening. I had my first operation that year, and everything seemed okay afterwards.

But in April 2005, the cancer came back, and during the second surgery, they removed one of my kidneys and my spleen.

Over the next two years, I went through multiple rounds of therapy, losing my hair and dealing with everything that came with it. For me, the hardest part was going back to school. I faced a lot of bullying—both physical and emotional.

My greatest support during that time came from my parents and my older brother, who is two years older than me. He was in the same school and was always my biggest protector.


RECOVERY IS POSSIBLE

One of my main goals, especially through my social media, is to share my story—not just the strong parts but also the vulnerable ones.

I want to show that even after going through something like cancer, with the support of family, you can recover and achieve anything. I feel lucky to have had the kind of support I did because not all children have that.

I also think there isn’t enough discussion about these topics in the media, whether it’s about childhood bullying or cancer. It’s still somewhat of a taboo, especially here in the Balkans.

Even though more people are starting to talk about it now, there’s still a lot of fear. I admit that it still scares me sometimes, but I truly believe that with the right mindset and a positive outlook on life, recovery is possible.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

I want to inspire women and, more broadly, be a source of support for children and people in general.

Many people who meet me now can’t believe what I’ve been through in the past. But I want to show the vulnerable side of things and what happens behind the scenes. It’s not all shiny and beautiful, even in professional sports or on social media. People are constantly fed this idea that everything is perfect, but that’s not the reality.

I don’t want to focus only on the negative, but I think the pressure to portray perfect lives is making people more anxious. We all have our own struggles and traumas, often carried from childhood.

I’ve been really passionate about psychology for the last four or five years and have been studying it a lot. My father is also a mental coach, primarily for football players but also for athletes in general.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC


THAT’S WHAT REALLY DRIVES ME

I’ve been on a journey to better understand myself because, for me, it’s really important to have a sense of purpose and meaning in whatever I do. I can’t just do things without a deeper reason or understanding behind them. 

I started studying psychology, and I also have my own psychotherapist. For me, energy is really important, and I think a lot of people don’t realise how much knowing yourself on a deeper level can change your life. One of the biggest questions for me is getting to truly know who I am.

When we go somewhere for the first time, and they ask, “Who are you?” we tend to answer by listing what we do—like the schools we’ve attended or the jobs we have. But who we are, at a deeper level, is a much more profound question. That’s what really drives me—to understand myself more and more. 

I’m really close to my family, and my brother and I are best friends. It’s hard to explain the love between us.

One of the things I want to highlight is how much my parents prioritised spending time with us when we were kids. Every free moment they had they spent with my brother and me. I feel like a lot of parents nowadays don’t do that—they try to make up for it by buying gifts or material things.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

MY FAMILY MEANS THE WORLD AND I BELIEVE IT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE

When I was younger and dealing with health issues, my parents didn’t tell me the full story at the time.

I was only six years old, and there wasn’t any point in explaining everything to a child that age. They protected me from that burden and carried the weight of it themselves for many years. Even now, especially for my mum, it’s still hard for her to talk about those times—it’s like reopening an old wound.

When I returned to school after all the surgeries and treatments, I faced a lot of bullying. My parents wanted to transfer me to a different school to change the environment, but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to face the problem head-on and not run away from it.

What mattered most to me was that my parents were always my biggest support both for me and my brother.

They never forced us into anything or pressured us to follow a path they had chosen. We always talked about everything openly, and they gave us the freedom to make our own choices.

A lot of parents try to live out their unfulfilled dreams through their children, and I think that’s harmful. When those kids grow up, they often feel lost or unhappy because they haven’t been able to find their own path in life.

For me, my family means the world, and I believe it’s the most important thing in life. I also love kids so much, and one of my biggest dreams is to have three children. Family and finding a partner with whom I can build that future are incredibly important to me.


TENNIS GAVE ME SO MUCH IN LIFE

I started playing tennis when I was 10 with a couple of friends, and over time, I fell in love with the sport.

Initially, I trained both volleyball and tennis for about a year, but I realised that tennis was more suited to me, especially given everything that was happening in my life at the time. I loved being alone on the court, and in tennis, you’re constantly on your own. It became therapeutic for me.

I think, in a way, I was running away from everything else. In kindergarten, I was a hyperactive child, always hanging out with everyone. But after the events in middle school, I became shy and withdrawn.

I didn’t want to talk much about myself, and that continued into the first two years of high school. By the third year, I started opening up more, but I had completely lost my self-confidence.

When I was on the tennis court, I felt much better. But at the same time, you can’t completely separate your private life from your professional life. The same doubts you have off the court can follow you onto it.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

In 2020, about five years ago, when I was 19, I started training with my new coach, Goran Aleksic. He taught me so much about the real game of tennis because, before that, I hadn’t had great coaches.

That’s one of the issues in tennis—a lot of former players who didn’t succeed end up becoming coaches, but it’s not for everyone. Coaching requires constant education and development.

When I was 18 or 19, I had to unlearn and change things I had been taught when I was 12 or 13. In 2020, I had my best results, ranking as the second-best player in Serbia.

That year, I received several offers from sponsors to help me pursue my career more professionally and compete in bigger tournaments.

Tennis is an expensive sport, and people not involved in it often don’t realise that. They’d ask, “Why don’t you just go and win tournaments?” If it were that easy, everyone would be a professional tennis player.

In tennis, only the top 50 or 100 players make a good living, unlike in football or basketball, where you don’t need to be Messi, Ronaldo, or Jordan to earn a comfortable living.

In some countries, players in the third or fourth leagues can still earn decent money. In tennis, even being ranked in the top 300 is a huge achievement, but it doesn’t guarantee much financial reward.

Although my family always supported me, I never had the opportunity to fully commit to those big tournaments. Just as I received those offers in 2020, I injured my left wrist badly. Fortunately, I didn’t need surgery, but the recovery took two years, and the COVID pandemic made everything even more complicated.

At the time, I was really sad and disappointed, but now, looking back, I see that everything had a purpose. Tennis gave me so much in life.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC


I WANT TO USE MY PLATFORM TO SHARE MY PURPOSE

When I started recovering in early 2022, I had always wanted to do something with social media. I wanted people to hear my voice more.

My coach and I began recording more of our tennis training sessions, and I started posting on Instagram.

At the beginning of 2022, I had around 5,000 or 6,000 followers. Then, I had this dream one night where I saw my platforms growing, which showed me the power of the mind.

The next morning, I woke up to several messages, and some big tennis platforms on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube had shared my videos. My Instagram grew quickly—I gained about 50,000 followers in three months. I was in shock but also incredibly happy.

This year, I’ve started taking social media more seriously, posting more regularly, and sharing more about my life. As I mentioned earlier, I want to use my platforms to share my purpose, not just to post nice pictures.

I want people to get something valuable from my content, whether it’s learning about tennis, Padel, psychology, or receiving support.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

In 2022, when my social media presence started to grow, people began to take notice. One of them was Janko Tipsarević, once one of Serbia’s best tennis players and ranked eighth in the world.

Novak Djokovic and Stefan Bojic had notice noticed my videos and Stefan, who is now a good friend of mine, contacted me because he works with Janko. That’s how I started working with Stefan and together we began recording fun, freestyle tennis videos together.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC


I INSTANTLY FELL IN LOVE WITH THE SPORT

Janko’s Academy has collaborations with luxury resorts around the world, and they asked if I’d be interested in doing something with them. I thought, “Why not?” After a few meetings, we made a deal, and in May 2022, I went to the Maldives for about four months.

When I arrived, I didn’t know I would be teaching padel as well as tennis. So when I got there, they asked, “Do you know anything about Padel? You might end up taking classes for that too.” I was like, “No, I’ve never even heard of that sport, but I’ll give it a try.” I’ve always loved stepping out of my comfort zone and trying new things. I was never scared of that—it’s fun for me to try something new.

That was the moment I was first introduced to Padel, and I instantly fell in love with the sport. It was so much fun and really different from tennis.

In tennis, you don’t have a full team like in football, but in padel, you have a partner. It’s much more social, and in my opinion, it makes the training even more enjoyable.

Tennis will always have a special place in my heart as my first love when it comes to sports, but I can definitely say Padel is a close second.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

The joy that Padel gives me is indescribable. Every time I think about it or play it, it makes me smile. Honestly, I might even feel more joy now playing Padel than I ever did with tennis.

When I came back to Serbia after working in the Maldives, that was when Padel first started becoming popular here, around 2022. After my time in the Maldives, I still wanted to return to tennis professionally. I even got several offers, but things didn’t really work out.

I believe that if something is meant for you, it will happen. That’s why I’m not sad or disappointed that I’m not pursuing tennis the same way anymore. I gave my all to it, and I don’t have any regrets because tennis has led me to Padel.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC


WE NEED TO ENJOY AND HAVE FUN IN THE PROCESS OF ACHIEVING OUR GOALS

This year, I decided I wanted to pursue Padel professionally. But unlike my approach to tennis, I don’t want to put as much pressure on myself this time. I want to take it step by step, and I’ve been improving really fast, but I want to enjoy the process this time.

One of the lessons I learned from tennis is that I shouldn’t put so much pressure on myself. Of course, I have goals and things I want to achieve, but it’s important to enjoy the journey along the way.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

We always wait for something to happen in our lives, thinking we’ll be happy when it does. But what I’ve learned over the years—and I know I’m still young, but I’ve been through a lot—is that we need to enjoy and have fun in the process of achieving our goals.

I have won several tournaments in Belgrade, and about two months ago, I won a tournament in Sweden. This year I had the chance to visit Roland Garros in Paris and watch The French Open which was great. Whilst I was in Paris, I also played in a mixed Padel tournament with a friend and won.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

I also recently played in the biggest international padel tournament in Serbia. The first category was only for men, while the second category was a mixed tournament. I won second place with my partner, competing against teams from Spain, Croatia, Argentina, and Italy. Overall, it was a significant achievement for me.

I’m learning more about the professional aspects of this sport. Padel is growing rapidly in Serbia. In the last two years, we’ve built around 50 to 60 courts in Belgrade alone.

While the sport is expanding, it’s still mainly recreational. We don’t have many professional coaches or players, especially among women; there are only about five or six of us playing at a high level, most of whom come from tennis backgrounds.

My big desire now is to train abroad with professional coaches and immerse myself more in the world of professional padel.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC


HEAL THE TRAUMAS AND INSECURITIES I’VE HAD SINCE CHILDHOOD

One of the messages I want to share with the world is that it’s okay to have insecurities. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work on them. I’ve spent a lot of time building my self-confidence, and I still have some doubts and lingering issues from childhood. But the key is to keep working on them.

I was playing a game with friends—you know the kind where you spin the bottle and ask deep, personal questions.

One of the final questions we asked each other was, “What do you think your purpose in life is?” For me, one of the answers was to get to know myself deeply and to heal the traumas and insecurities I’ve carried since childhood. I want to ensure I don’t pass those on to my future children.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

Of course, I know I’ll make mistakes—we all do, we’re human—but my goal is to not pass my unresolved issues onto them. I think this is really important, and sometimes parents, despite wanting the best for their kids, aren’t fully aware of how they impact them.

I don’t have children yet, but I’m learning a lot about parenting, psychology, and relationships, and I’m fascinated by how these dynamics affect us.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC


GUIDING ME TOWARDS THE DIRECTION I WANT TO TAKE

There were many moments in my life. A couple of years ago, I was doing big things and achieving a lot, but I was never satisfied.

I constantly compared myself to others, thinking, “Look at that girl or boy; they did this, and I didn’t.” Eventually, I stopped that behaviour and focused on the only person I should compare myself to and that was who I was yesterday, not someone else.

Now, I find myself much more grateful for everything I have and what I’m achieving. I can’t pinpoint one specific moment, but I can highlight an experience from my recent trip to the Maldives where I was for 3-4 months.

That was significant for me because it was the first time I went away from home alone for an extended period. I didn’t have anyone from Serbia there, and I was the only tennis and Padel coach on the island. I didn’t know anybody at all when I arrived, and it gave me time to focus on myself and learn more about myself.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

Having that time to reflect was huge. I had the opportunity to think about where I see myself, what I want to do, and what I don’t want to do. I also had plenty of time to read and reflect.

During that time, I realised that I didn’t see myself as a tennis coach in a professional capacity. Although I have talent in that area—I have the patience to work with others—I just don’t envision myself coaching full-time.

When I coach, I put in 200%, which takes a lot of energy. However, the final result depends on the players’ commitment and desire to improve, and that can be frustrating. So, I’ve come to understand that coaching professionally isn’t what I want.

Over the last four years, this realisation has been a significant turning point for me, pushing me to aim even higher.

I now see that all these little things from previous years are coming together and guiding me toward the direction I want to take.

BOJANA JOVANOVIC

ALL OUR THANKS TO BOJANA JOVANOVIC.

YOU CAN FOLLOW BOJANA ON SOCIAL MEDIA HERE.

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