August 20 on Prime video<\/a> will give you more insight into how the 39-years-old Djokovic has maintained his remarkable tennis career longevity and where the wolf still has the mental, emotional and physical edges to win the 2026 U.S. Open.<\/p>\nNovak Djokovic: Wolf In Winter Represents Where Djokovic Is Right Now<\/p>\n
The wolf, by the way, is the national animal of Serbia, Djokovic\u2019s home country, revered for its courage, cunning and a fierce independent spirit whereas \u201cWinter\u201d could describe where Djokovic is currently in his overall professional tennis playing career, which began in 2003. Djokovic is physically not exactly a Spring chicken anymore. And Hehir\u2014who had directed the 2020 film The Last Dance that focused on Michael Jordan\u2019s final 1997-1998 season with the Chicago Bulls\u2014did recently emphasize to me, \u201cWe said ‘Let\u2019s make a movie about this guy\u2019 but with the condition that we\u2019re going to make a movie about a moment in time, in his life. We\u2019re not going to try and tell the definitive life story of Novak Djokovic not the least of which reason is that it’s still going on.\u201d <\/p>\n
If you do end up having a long successful career in anything, you will likely eventually face the Winter of it\u2014which as exhibited in the play and film The Lion in Winter is when your abilities, skills and standing have eroded with age and adversity. Such a season can prompt others to constantly wonder and even ask when you are yielding the throne. And the ‘R” word is a question that Djokovic is asked about frequently, which can elicit a big \u201cgrrrrr\u201d from him. <\/p>\n
Djokovic during a sneak preview of the film in New York City on July 16 emphasized how he is not retired yet, emphasizing that he is still \u201cproving to myself that I can still win.\u201d He is doing a good job at it, too\u2014currently ranked fifth in the world among men\u2019s singles players and having made the finals of the Australian Open and the semifinals of Wimbledon this year already. <\/p>\n
Djokovic At Age 39 Is Seeded Fourth In The 2026 U.S. Open Men\u2019s Singles Draw <\/p>\n
Novak Djokovic of Serbia is seeded fourth in the men’s singles draw of the upcoming 2026 edition of the U.S. Open. (Photo by Emilee Chinn\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
Now, Djokovic is going forth\u2014and literally \u201cfourth\u201d\u2014to play in the 2026 U.S. Open, seeded fourth in the men\u2019s singles draw that begins August 30. That\u2019s behind only the 29-year-old Alexander Zverev, the 23-year-old Alcaraz and the 25-year-old F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime. The rest of the top ten are all GenZers as well with the exception of the eighth-seeded Daniil Medvedev, who is barely a Millennial at 30 years of age So, while he is seeded in a good position to win the U.S. Open, Djokovic, he will have to overcome youth. <\/p>\n
This brings us to a primary purpose of the film. \u201cWe had the opportunity here to tell the story of a GOAT and his sport when he is still dominant over just about everyone except a couple of guys in the world,\u201d Hehir explained. \u201cAnd what he is grappling with, what drives him\u2014now that he has accomplished everything there is to accomplish more than any other tennis player has ever accomplished\u2014what drives him to keep on going, and what is pulling at him off the court, which is being a dad, being a husband, pursuing other things outside of tennis.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hehir Found Djokovic To Be ‘Really Intelligent, Really Curious\u2019 <\/p>\n
However, when Djokovic\u2019s team first talked to Hehir about doing a documentary, Hehir didn\u2019t exactly, umm, \u201cwolf\u201d up the possibility. \u201cI knew who Novak was, obviously, but didn\u2019t know much more about him than the average sports fan,\u201d recalled Hehir. \u201cSo I had my doubts about how difficult he might be to work with because I knew what his reputation was as being kind of obstinate, stubborn and maybe arrogant, you know, all these misconceptions that that drive him crazy.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, over time while \u201ckicking the tires\u201d of this idea, Hehir came to realize that \u201cThis guy is fascinating\u201d and \u201cThat this is a really intelligent, really curious person.\u201d For example, Hehir was struck by how \u201cHe was really curious from the get go about what my approach was to make a film. Like how do you go about it? What\u2019s the research process? How do you decide how many days you\u2019re gonna shoot?\u201d <\/p>\n
Djokovic Pays Close Attention To The Mundane Details Of His Life<\/p>\n
An important detail about Djokovic is how closely he pays attention to all the details of his fitness and health. \u201cI never saw him consume one thing that wasn\u2019t the highest grade, healthy meal or beverage or anything you can have,” recalled Hehir. \u201cThe first time that we met was in Montenegro. It was like 105 degrees at night over there, and he had a drink in front of him that looked like a lemonade and really refreshing.\u201d Hehir naturally asked the waiter for the same thing, and the waiter gave Hehir this OK-are-you-sure type of look. When the waiter did come back with the drink, \u201cIt was tepid, lukewarm celery juice or something like that,\u201d Hehir remarked. \u201cIt was not refreshing at all. It was gross.\u201d <\/p>\n
Djokovic has a chef who travels with him and makes him \u201cperfectly healthy meals all the time,\u201d in the words of Hehir. \u201cWe had a salad with no dressing on it and grilled chicken that wasn\u2019t seasoned. It wasn\u2019t anything like you would have at a restaurant.\u201d Maintaining such routines does take exceptional discipline. \u201cIf a layman tried to adopt this regimen, they would find it really challenging and nearly impossible,\u201d Hehir mentioned. \u201cBut the impossible is just his mundane at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of mundane, there can be a misconception that a top athlete\u2019s life is filled with limelight-like stuff. However, as Hehir indicated, \u201cI wish I had shocking anecdotes that didn\u2019t make it into the movie, but a lot of it, as you probably have observed with athletes, is boring. It\u2019s getting up, meditating for that half hour, needing a healthy breakfast, hitting balls for an hour and a half, watching film and resting.\u201d While Djokovic does have elite innate athletic ability, it\u2019s keeping up with mundane routines each day that has kept him in elite physical, mental and emotional shape. <\/p>\n
Djokovic, Like Michael Jordan, Finds Strong Motivation In Proving People Wrong<\/p>\n
Another quality of Djokovic\u2019s to Air, so to speak, is something that Hehir also observed in Jordan, considered by many to be the GOAT of basketball: \u201cMichael and Novak are very similar in that there really is nothing more for them to achieve or to prove, and yet when you ask them what gets them out of bed in the morning, it\u2019s to prove people wrong.\u201d After Djokovic has won 10 Australian Open titles, seven Wimbledon titles, four U.S. Open titles and four French Open titles, it\u2019s not as if many people are asking Djokovic when he\u2019ll ever make anything of himself as a tennis player. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo these guys now have to conjure up doubt in thin air, conjure a motivation,\u201d Hehir explained. \u201cIn Novak\u2019s case, he has to look into the crowd and find someone who was booing him or find someone who was talking smack, and dedicate the rest of the match to proving that person wrong or shutting that person up..\u201d <\/p>\n
During July\u2019s movie screening, Djokovic mentioned the Serbian word inat: \u201cWhen people doubt you, when everyone is basically against you, that\u2019s 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.\u201d And inat is also in the following trailer of the movie:<\/p>\n
For example, when Djokovic was told that 90 percent of the people in focus groups who had watched The Wolf in Winter thought more highly of him afterwards\u2014which would be a grand slam result for most\u2014Djokovic\u2019s initial response was like \u201cWhat about the 10 percent?\u201d Yeah, you can\u2019t get much past Djokovic both literally and figuratively.<\/p>\n
Djokovic Focuses On The Here And Now<\/p>\n
Speaking of past, even though the film was meant to focus on Djokovic\u2019s here and now, it did contain some snippets of his past\u2014like his growing up in war-torn Belgrade \u2014to help understand his present. \u201cWith Novak, his childhood was so fraught with danger and fear and a realization that tomorrow is never promised,\u201d Hehir said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t know how that that connects to his competitiveness or his monomaniacal focus. I do think there\u2019s a desire to be loved and appreciated.\u201d <\/p>\n
Nevertheless, in Hehir\u2019s words, Djokovic \u201cdoesn\u2019t really dwell on things that happen in the past. If you prime enough, he\u2019ll talk about the past, but he\u2019s not an open book and not giving you anecdotes about the past unless you really earn that trust.\u201d This ability to focus solely on the here and now rather than dwell on past disappointments or keep looking into the the future is common among elite athletes. \u201cMost of us don\u2019t have that ability,\u201d Hehir remarked. If you were down 40-15, 5-3, in the fifth set of a major, \u201cMost of us would think, \u2018[bleep], if I miss this next point, it\u2019s over.\u2019” Not Djokovic, though. Only after that point is done will Djokovic move on in any way to the next point.<\/p>\n
The major point of the film and major point to consider as Djokovic plays the 83rd major of his career is that all the aforementioned qualities combine to keep him as a major threat to win the 2026 U.S. Open. Although Djokovic may be in the Winter of his tennis playing career, who knows whether this Winter will last one, two or maybe even 10 more years. What has happened to other players in the past really doesn\u2019t really here, because Djokovic has already proven himself to be an anomaly\u2014a lone wolf when it comes to tennis talent and longevity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennis great Novak Djokovic (L) and director Jason Hehir speak onstage during the “Novak Djokovic: The Wolf In…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1022029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[48],"tags":[38709,23166,144976,94256,9125,89637,62,1464,408932,39499,67,132,68,408933],"class_list":["post-1022028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-djokovic","tag-grand-slam","tag-jason-hehir","tag-novak","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-serbia","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-the-last-dance","tag-u-s-open","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wolf-in-winter"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117153257941102070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1022028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1022029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1022028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1022028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1022028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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