Tennis champ Djokovic to play Yugoslav king on TV

(AFP PHOTO/FRED DUFOUR)

The Serbian world number three tennis player Novak Djokovic is to play Yugoslavia's first king in a television series to be shot next year, local media reported Thursday.

The 10-part series will retrace the life and reign of king Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, first monarch of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, who unified the kingdoms of Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia after World War I.

The tennis champion and first-time actor will play Aleksandar during his reign, which came to a brutal end in 1934 when he was assassinated in the port of Marseilles while trying to set up an alliance with France against Germany.

Djokovic's younger brother Djordje will play the king as a young man.

Filmed on a budget of almost three million euros (4.2 million dollars), ther show is set to air in 2011, its director Stojan Stojcic said.

The 22-year old Serb player finished 2009 as world number three for the second straight year.

Djokovic won his first Grand Slam singles title at the 2008 Australian Open. He had been runner-up at the 2007 US Open and won a bronze for Serbia in the singles at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

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