Men’s tennis is not in a good place these days. The hype in recent years was that Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz were ready to step into the gaping hole left by Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafa Nadal’s retirements. While Alcaraz and Sinner have been dominant, they’re both injury-prone or illness-prone. Sinner wilts in the heat and Alcaraz has a glass body – Sinner hasn’t played since Wimbledon and it seems likely he’ll pull out of the US Open, meanwhile Alcaraz has been out with a wrist injury since April. Their absence has left a vacuum. Ordinarily, Novak Djokovic would fill that vacuum, as he’s done for nearly two decades. Instead, Djokovic is showing his age big-time this year. Since he lost the Australian Open final, he’s barely played anywhere but the Slams, and he’s noticeably lost a step and then some. Retirement seems to be right around the corner – perhaps in Australia next January, if I had to guess. In lieu of a formal announcement, Novak is currently promoting his Amazon Prime documentary, Novak Djokovic: The Wolf in Winter. He chatted with People Magazine about the doc and more:

Why he agreed to do ‘The Wolf in Winter’: “I always wanted to present my story, and particularly to people who maybe don’t necessarily follow tennis or sports. Maybe they heard about me but don’t necessarily know me privately. I hope that most people will be able to connect to the universal values that are hopefully transmitted in this film, like resilience, perseverance, family, teamwork, dedication and belief in yourself when others don’t.

Growing up in Serbia: “Because of the war and economic crisis in the entire country, I had to mature very early and take responsibilities of an adult, even though I was far from being an adult. But I understood the mission in front of me and I never looked back. Almost everything that I have done was in service to tennis.

How he repaid his parents: “I vowed to myself that I would pay my parents back, not just in terms of money and resources, but I wanted them to feel happy and proud and safe, and that’s what they are right now for quite some time. I felt like, as a son, I succeeded in that mission.

His wife Jelena: “She’s the only serious relationship I ever had. We have grown together, really. She was my high school love. Our paths crossed again abroad because she was studying in Italy, and I was training in Monte Carlo. We would see each other and then eventually started living together. She was always very supportive of my journey and tennis life. As with any other relationship, it takes sacrifice and a lot of compromise. We try to always communicate and remind ourselves of the love and the foundation that we created together. We have our trials and tribulations like any couple, but we do try to always communicate what bothers us, and not only when something bothers us, but also when we feel love and affection.

His children, Stefan and Tara: “I arguably had the most successful 18 months of my life after my son was born [in October 2014]. A similar thing happened after my daughter was born [in September 2017]. I owe a lot to my children. They teach me on a daily basis how to forgive, how to stay present, how to enjoy the moment, how to be playful with life. I was still playing a full schedule, and without the support of my wife, that would be very hard for me to do. She was my rock. She was nurturing our children and helping them overcome the absence of their father, which is something that hurts me the most, even these days. But you do your work, and you try to do the best that you can. When you come back home, you try to be as present as you possibly can.

Whether he wants Stefan to play professionally: “I want him to have the choice to decide if he wants to play tennis or another sport or do whatever he wants to do. I primarily want him to be happy, to be healthy. I want to be his father. I don’t want to be his coach. And it’s not easy, obviously, being who I am in the tennis world. People see my son traveling around with a racket, and then there’s always a curiosity whether he’s going to be pursuing the same journey, but it’s not the same journey. It’s his journey.

On Serena Williams’ comeback: “It doesn’t depend only on the body. I don’t want to be missing out on different events of close family members. I’ve lived an incredibly fulfilling, successful professional life. In a sense, you have to be kind of selfish as an individual athlete to be pursuing your career, and everyone else is supportive of you. Serena is an inspiration. Serena is epic. I love Serena. I’ve always been a fan of what she’s doing after two children, coming back and attempting to compete at the highest level in Slams. Regardless of what she does, it’s already incredibly inspiring. We all should enjoy her presence.

[From People]

A few things – one, he adores Serena and he’s been one of her biggest hype men for years. He was genuinely thrilled that she decided to come back. For all of his faults, he’s genuinely super-supportive of women athletes not just in tennis, but all sports. Two, I actually think Stefan Djokovic will end up as a tennis pro like his dad. I believe Novak when he says he shouldn’t coach his son, but Stefan is already playing in the juniors and… yeah, I think out of all the tennis kids, he’s the one. I expect this documentary will likely gloss over the roughly two-year period where Novak picked up an injury, didn’t treat it, lost his motivation and it looked like his marriage was imploding at the same time. All of that happened ten years ago and it was rough.

Also: Novak tried to play in Cincinnati as a warm-up for the US Open, and he lost in his first round over the weekend. It was awful – he looked like he had heat stroke and he barfed his guts out on court. Afterwards, he said that he has a health condition which he’s been dealing with for “the past couple of years” but didn’t specify exactly what was going on. I’ve theorized for years now that he has long covid, I swear to god. He famously refused to get vaccinated and he had covid like three or four times that we know of.

Incidentally, I plan to watch The Wolf In Winter because I’m curious to see if Novak does discuss what happened during the 2016-18 breakdown period. I also have to recommend a different tennis docuseries: Aces: The ATP No. 1 Club. They interviewed almost every men’s #1, and there’s an absolutely hysterical part when Stefan Edberg is practically in tears while recounting how Jimmy Connors told him to go f–k himself.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.