‘Why would you want to retire me?’: Novak Djokovic still driven by doubt in new documentary
Novak Djokovic is the focus of a Prime Video documentary, Novak Djokovic: The Wolf in Winter, which debuted on Thursday and examines what continues to drive the 39-year-old player.
The 92-minute film, directed by Jason Hehir, traces a series of personal and professional forces shaping Djokovic and was first taken to Hehir in 2023 after a project that had been in development since 2017; Hehir officially accepted the assignment the following year. Hehir, who previously chronicled Michael Jordan in The Last Dance and André The Giant for HBO, said he approached Djokovic as a complex, polarizing figure and wanted to capture the athlete "in real time" rather than produce a straightforward biography.
The documentary foregrounds Djokovic’s sporting credentials as context for its psychological portrait: he is a winner of 24 grand slam titles and holds the most weeks atop the ATP rankings (428). Andre Agassi, appearing in the film, says: “It is as clear as it gets – he is the best of all time.” Djokovic offers his own cultural explanation for his mindset, saying: “There is a word in Serbian called inat. When people doubt you, when everyone is basically against you, that’s when you use that inat, that force of stubbornness to prove everybody wrong. That inat is actually quite widespread in the mentality of Serbian people.”
Jelena Djokovic provides a personal assessment of her husband’s temperament as a mix of genius, anger, playfulness and unexpressed childhood emotions, and describes tennis as a refuge, saying: “That’s the place where he finds love.” The film includes a childhood memory Djokovic recounts from the 1999 Nato bombings of Belgrade, when he tripped on the street at night and was unable to attract his family’s attention as they fled to safety.
The documentary does not avoid controversial moments, including Djokovic’s 2022 deportation from Australia prior to the Australian Open after the government revoked his visa on the grounds that a recent Covid diagnosis did not justify an exemption to Australia’s requirement for visitors to be vaccinated. On the subject of vaccination he says in the film: “I never said I’m against vaccine or pro-vaccine. The anti-vax movement claimed that I’m their hero. I’ve never associated myself with any anti-vax, pro-vax or anything. I’m pro freedom to choose what you are going to do with the integrity of your body. I missed slams and tournaments. I didn’t play in America for a couple of years because I was not vaccinated. That’s fine. But in Australia, I was allowed. I’m not the scientist, I’m not the one who is setting the rules. I’m not the one that should debate that. I stood up for what I believe in. I stand for protection of my integrity and what I think is best for my body, and that’s it.”
The film also addresses the practical limits of Djokovic’s longevity in the sport: he competed last week at the Cincinnati Open — his first tournament since Wimbledon — and was beaten in his opening match by Thiago Agustín Tirante of Argentina, the world No 50. The documentary notes Djokovic’s recent consistency at majors: he has reached the semi-finals or better in six of his last seven grand slam tournaments and is ranked world No 5; at Wimbledon last month he outlasted Felix Auger-Aliassime in a five-set, five-hour quarter-final before losing to the eventual winner, Jannik Sinner.
Djokovic confronts questions about retirement directly in the film, saying: “I know a lot of people are retiring me already, for many years. Why would you want to retire me when I am still playing and competing at the highest level? I’m still top 5, top 10 in the world. Why would I talk about retirement when I am proving to myself that I can still win?” Hehir said Djokovic initially did not want retirement discussed but that he encouraged addressing it as a form of compliment, saying: “I told Novak, "We have to address this but it’s a compliment because people are fascinated by how long you can continue to do this,'" Hehir said. “The irony here is that I think that his career is going to be elongated because of the skepticism surrounding his retirement. That’s one of the things that drives him now. I’m sure with the result in Cincinnati there will be people asking, ‘Is this the beginning of the end?’ Well, they’ve been asking this about Novak for five years. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he made a deep run at the US Open in a few weeks.”