Do you know who Voja Ilić is? Or what the famous queue, or “The Queue,” at Wimbledon is? If not, don’t worry – you’ll soon find out.
Let’s start with Voja, or Vojislav Ilić, who can be described in many ways, but we’ll choose the one that will likely mean the most to him. Voja is one of Novak Đoković’s biggest and most loyal fans!
“I’ve been following Nole since the beginning of his career, for 18 years now, although I watched tennis even before that. I watched Jelena Janković a lot, especially in Rome, because I live two hours from Rome,” Vojislav Ilić begins his introduction to B92.sport readers and continues:
“When I was younger, I didn’t have the means to travel, because tennis is really an expensive sport to watch. The figures are huge – plane, hotel, food, tickets… It’s not easy, but I work as a waiter and decided to work double shifts of 16-18 hours to have money for travel! So far, I’ve been to a large number of tournaments, of course, multiple times at each… Rome, Monte Carlo, ATP Finals in Turin, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, Dubai, Serbia Open, Malaga, Davis Cup, Olympics in Paris, Bercy, Australian Open…”
The Wimbledon Queue Experience
This year, this Serbian tennis enthusiast — not for the first time, of course — made it to Wimbledon, but the journey to the complex was the least of his problems.
For those who don’t know, almost the only way for an ordinary person to attend matches at the London Grand Slam is to — stand in line. But not just any line. It’s “The Queue” — which literally means queue in English — but it’s a queue where you have to camp the day before you want to enter Wimbledon, as it’s the only way to buy tickets, even the cheapest ones (grounds pass) which allow you to watch all matches on smaller courts and stay in the complex all day for about 20-30 pounds.
“Every year at Wimbledon, I’m in the front rows. There’s no strategy, I just organize earlier with my good friend Milan Ognjenović, we set up a tent and then the waiting begins! You have to sleep in a tent. Luckily, this year the weather was beautiful. Usually, you wait the day before the match, for 18 hours… Last year I waited 25 hours in the rain, and when I got in, De Minaur canceled the match with Nole. Oh, I cried then!” Voja recalls, continuing about his adventures in “The Queue”:
“The atmosphere where the tent is set up is beautiful for me, because people are very good. Everyone helps each other, we play cards, we drink… We spend many hours together there, there’s always some wine, beer, we go for food. They give out free strawberries there! There’s also some music, it’s very nice and important to me, because it feels like I’m on vacation. There, we all wait for the moment to see Novak live, and there are really a lot of our people. I’ve never seen any incidents. The only thing that sometimes happens are some stolen things. You have to be careful, because people from the side come in, and it’s interesting that foxes constantly come to feed. With them, it’s normal, like they’re cats!”
— OvoOno (@OvoOnoX) July 7, 2025
A Member of the “NoleFam”
Voja is indeed one of Novak’s most loyal and vocal fans, but he is actually a member of a group, the popular “NoleFam.” Novak’s fan family is literally at his every match all over the world, and it’s often the same people, who save all their savings and free time to be able to follow him wherever he appears.
“When Nole plays, we are that group that was formed many years ago – ‘NoleFam’. We really create beautiful choreography, you can hear us cheering. Usually, I lose my voice. Nole, at the end of every match, when he hears me asking for a T-shirt or an autograph, he thanks me for the support. That really fills my heart with emotion and adrenaline!” Voja explains.
And why Novak, specifically? It’s clear even without asking, but we wanted to get the answer anyway. “Novak is important to me because from the first day I started following him on television, he brought a kind of joy to my soul, a smile to my face, and great emotions with his victories. That, and how he has behaved since the beginning of his career. As Jelena Genčić said: He is not from this planet,” says the “NoleFam” member.
Novak, however, is not the only Serbian representative that Voja follows, supports, and loves. You can really see him at various matches of our players; he is there to support everyone, but he particularly highlights one.
— OvoOno (@OvoOnoX) July 7, 2025
“I follow every Serb, and I’m especially fond of Miomir Kecmanović. He always greets me and gives me a towel, T-shirt, or cap, which makes me happy. They mostly all give me something, since I appear at almost every tournament and cheer for them. Lately, I’ve been really following Teodora Kostović; I hope she succeeds. She’s still young, and then a situation happened last year… I went onto the court at Wimbledon to hug her after a win, and the security guards immediately jumped on me! I said she was my sister, she said everything was fine, and we hugged there. I even managed to step on the Wimbledon grass, ha-ha!” Novak’s “superfan” Vojislav Ilić concludes his conversation for B92.sport.
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Source: B92.sport, Foto: Privatna arhiva