Novak okovi was born in Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia, on 22 May 1987 to parents Sran and Dijana

okovi. His two younger brothers, ore and Marko, are also tennis players with professional
aspirations. He has been in a relationship with fellow Serb and Belgrade native, Jelena Ristic for the past
five years.
He started playing tennis at the age of four, and was spotted by Yugoslav tennis legend Jelena Geni at
the age of eight, who stated: "This is the greatest talent I have seen sinceMonica Seles." At 12 years old,
he spent three months at Nikola Pili's tennis academy inMunich, Germany, and at age 14, his
international career began, winning European championships in singles, doubles, and team
competition. He currently resides in Monte Carlo, Monaco and has been coached by a
former Slovak tennis player, Marin Vajda; in August 2009 he also began working with former US top-five
player Todd Martin.
okovi is also known for his often humorous off-court impersonations of his fellow players, many of
whom are his friends. This became evident to the tennis world after his 2007 US Open quarterfinal win
over Carlos Moy, where he entertained the audience with impersonations of Rafael Nadal and Maria
Sharapova. He also did an impression of American tennis great John McEnroe after his final preliminary
game at the 2009 US Open, before playing a brief game with McEnroe, much to the delight of the
audience.

The movement towards gender equality, especially in Western countries, began with
the suffragette movement of the late-19th century. Then there was a change in relation to a woman's
property rights in marriage. (See for example, Married Women's Property Act 1882.) In the 1960s, a more
general movement for gender equality developed based on women's liberation and feminism. However,
actual changes in attitudes continued to focus on specific issues.
The movement has resulted in changes to laws, either relating to particular issues or general anti-sex
discrimination laws. Changes to attitudes to equality in education opportunities for boys and girls has also
undergone a cultural shift. Some changes came about by adoptingaffirmative action policies. The change
has also involved changes to social views, including "equal pay for equal work" as well as most
occupations being equally available to men and women, in many countries. For example, many countries
now permit women to serve in the armed forces, the police force and to be fire fighters. Also, an
increasing number of women are active in politics and occupy high positions in business.
Conversely, men increasingly are working in occupations which in previous generations had been
considered "female occupations", such as nursing. Also, in the home, while acknowledging the biological
differences between men and women, most notably in relation to child bearing, the role of child rearing is
not as widely considered to be an exclusively female role. Another manifestation of the change in social
attitudes is the non-automatic taking by a woman of her husband's surname on marriage, as well as a
wife being free to pursue her career after marriage.
Many people, feminist and not, still do not regard the objective of gender equality as having been
achieved, especially in non-Western countries. A highly contentious issue relating to gender equality is the
role of women in Christian churches, and female priests. The issue has caused splits in some churches.
Not all ideas for gender equality have been popularly adopted. For example, the movement
for topfreedom rights has remained a marginal issue, though breast feeding rights in semi-public places
have been accepted. However, women embracing pornography and other anti-social behaviour at times
associated with male groups is widely criticised.