Novak Djokovic

• 1. Introduction

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  Novak Djokovic walked onto the courts of Roland Garros on the 4th of August 2024 needing one prize his collection lacked, an Olympic gold medal. Across the net in the final stood Carlos Alcaraz. Neither man was broken on serve through two long tie-break sets, and Djokovic won both of them. The journalist Steve Flink called it "the best two-set match I have ever seen". The win completed a Career Golden Slam and a Career Super Slam. Djokovic, a Serbian professional tennis player, was 37 years old.

  That gold medal raises questions that the rest of this documentary will chase. How did a player come to dominate a sport that two other champions already seemed to own? What did it cost him to get there, and what did he refuse to give up on principle? And why does a career this large keep circling back to the same handful of opponents?

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• 2. Belgrade Beginnings

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  When Novak Djokovic turned four, his parents gave him a mini-racket and a soft foam ball. His father later said the ball became "the most beloved toy in his life". Djokovic was born on the 22nd of May 1987 in Belgrade, then part of SFR Yugoslavia, to Dijana and Srdjan Djokovic. His father's family was Serbian and his mother's was Croatian. His two younger brothers, Marko and Djordje, have also played professional tennis. His parents first sent him to a tennis camp in Novi Sad.

  In the summer of 1993, a six-year-old Djokovic met Jelena Genčić at a camp she supervised on Mount Kopaonik, where his parents ran a fast-food parlour. Genčić worked with him for the next six years. She talked him into hitting his backhand with two hands, although his idol Pete Sampras used one. Djokovic has credited her with "shaping my mind as a human being, but also as a professional".

  The late 1990s brought the Yugoslav Wars, and Serbia endured embargoes and NATO bombings because of the Kosovo War. At one point Djokovic trained inside a disused swimming pool that had been turned into a tennis court. Genčić saw how quickly he was improving and contacted Nikola Pilić. In September 1999 Djokovic moved to Pilić's academy in Oberschleißheim, Germany, where he stayed for four years. Pilić made him spend several months serving against a wall. He also had the boy stretch his wrists with a rubber exercise band for a full year. Between stints there, his father drove him to academies in the United States, Italy and Germany.

  Tennis education at that level was expensive. His father took out high-interest loans to cover the travel and training, and Djokovic felt immense pressure to deliver.

  He began winning early. In 2001 he took a title at a second-category under-14 event in Messina, beating fellow Serb Bojan Božović in the final. In Livorno he knocked out top seed Andy Murray in the semifinals. He finished the year as European champion in singles, doubles and team events, and topped the under-14 European list with Murray in second place. In 2002 he beat Gaël Monfils in the final at La Baule and won his first ITF title in Pančevo. His junior record stood at 40-11 in singles and 23-6 in doubles.

  His first professional match came in January 2003 at a Futures event in Oberschleißheim, where Niki Pilić gave him a wildcard. He lost narrowly to Alex Rădulescu. He ended that year ranked No. 687. In 2004 he won his first Challenger title in Budapest on his 17th birthday and finished the year at No. 186. By the end of 2005 he was No. 78, the youngest player in the top 100.

  In April 2006 he won both of his singles matches in a Davis Cup tie against Great Britain, helping Serbia and Montenegro to victory. Afterwards his family reportedly discussed representing Great Britain with the Lawn Tennis Association. Djokovic first dismissed the story. In 2009 he confirmed the talks were serious but said he was "proud of being a Serbian" and "didn't want to spoil that just because another country had better conditions".

  That summer he won his first ATP title at the Dutch Open in Amersfoort, then a second in Metz, and finished 2006 at No. 16, the youngest player in the top 20. Earlier that year, at the French Open, he had reached his first major quarterfinal and retired with back trouble after two sets against Rafael Nadal. It was their first meeting, and it started a rivalry that would run for years.

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• 3. Breaking The Duopoly

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  In Miami in 2007, Djokovic beat Nadal in the quarterfinals, Andy Murray in the semifinals and Guillermo Cañas in the final. It was his first Masters title and made him the youngest champion in the tournament's history. That August at the Canadian Open he beat Andy Roddick, then Nadal, then Roger Federer. No player had beaten the top three ranked men in one event since Boris Becker in 1994. Björn Borg said Djokovic was "definitely a contender to win a Grand Slam." At the US Open that September, Djokovic reached his first major final, held five set points in the first set and two in the second, and lost every one of them. Federer won in straight sets, and Djokovic finished the year at No. 3.

  Borg's prediction came true in Melbourne in January 2008. Djokovic reached the Australian Open final without dropping a set, beating Federer in the semifinals. That made him the youngest Open Era player to reach the last four at all four majors. In the final he beat the unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets. At age 20, he had broken a streak of 11 consecutive majors won by Federer and Nadal. It was the first major title in three years that neither of them had taken. He added a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics and, in November, the year-end championship in Shanghai over Nikolay Davydenko.

  In 2009 he reached ten finals and won five titles, but the schedule wore him down. He retired from the Australian Open quarterfinals against Roddick with heat-related illness. At the Madrid Open he lost to Nadal in a record-setting semifinal of 4 hours and 3 minutes. After nearly 100 matches that year, he skipped the early 2010 tournaments. In March he beat Sam Querrey and John Isner to give Serbia a 3-2 win over the United States, a step toward the Davis Cup crown that year. At the French Open he lost to Jürgen Melzer after leading by two sets, the only time in his career he has lost a major match from that position. At the US Open he saved two match points against Federer in the fifth set of the semifinal, then lost the final to Nadal in four sets. By then fans and commentators had started calling Federer, Nadal and Djokovic the "Big Three".

  The 2011 season is the one the source ranks among the greatest in history. Djokovic won the Australian Open, beating Federer and Murray in straight sets. He kept winning until the French Open semifinal, where Federer ended a 43-match streak. In Madrid and Rome he beat Nadal in straight sets in the finals, his first clay-court wins over Nadal after nine straight losses. At Wimbledon he beat Nadal in the final to win his first title there, and reached world No. 1 for the first time. At the US Open, Federer served for the match with two match points in the semifinal, but Djokovic won in five sets. He then beat Nadal in four sets for his first US Open title. He took three majors and a then-record five Masters titles that year, and against Nadal and Federer he went 10-1.

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• 4. Peak Years

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  At the 2012 London Olympics, Djokovic carried Serbia's flag. He lost the semifinal to Murray and then the bronze medal match to Juan Martín del Potro, finishing fourth. Later that autumn he saved five championship points against Murray in Shanghai to win the title. He regained the No. 1 ranking when Federer withdrew from the Paris Masters, and finished the year with his second ATP Finals title, beating Federer in the final.

  In January 2013 he beat Murray to win a record third consecutive Australian Open in the Open Era. He ended that season on a 24-match winning streak and announced that Boris Becker would join his team as head coach for 2014. In Rome in 2014, he won the title and donated his $500,000 prize to victims of the Southeast Europe floods that year. At Wimbledon he beat Federer in five sets for his second title there and took back the No. 1 ranking. At the ATP Finals he dropped only nine games in the round-robin stage, a record, and won the title when Federer withdrew from the final with a back injury. It was the first walkover in a final in the tournament's 45-year history. The title also secured his third year-end No. 1.

  The next year, 2015, is the one the source calls the best of his career. He won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, beating Murray in Melbourne and Federer in the other two finals. At the US Open he reached his sixth final there, and by playing all four Grand Slam finals in one calendar year he reached his tenth major title. In Miami he became the first player to complete the Sunshine double three times. After Monte-Carlo he became the first man to win the first three Masters 1000 titles of a season. In Beijing he improved his record at that tournament to 29-0. At the Paris Masters he won a record sixth Masters title of the year. At the ATP Finals he beat Federer in the final and became the first player to win it four consecutive times. He reached the final of every top-level tournament he entered, a record 15 consecutive finals. He won 11 titles, including a record ten of the biggest ones, and had a record 31 wins over top-10 players. Against the other three members of the Big Four he went 15-4.

  In Doha in 2016 he won his 60th career title by beating Nadal in 73 minutes. He added a sixth Australian Open, then won Miami for a sixth time, tying Andre Agassi's record there. That win made him the all-time ATP prize money leader, with $98.2 million. At the French Open he beat Murray in four sets, completing the "Nole Slam". He became the eighth player to complete a Career Grand Slam, and the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four majors at once. He also became the first player to earn $100 million in prize money, and his ranking points reached a record 16,950. A few weeks later at Wimbledon, Sam Querrey beat him in the third round, ending a 30-match Grand Slam winning streak and giving him his earliest Slam exit since the 2009 French Open.

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• 5. Fall And Return

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  At the 2017 Australian Open, Djokovic lost in the second round to Denis Istomin, ranked No. 117. It was his first defeat at a major to a player outside the top 100. By April he had split with longtime coach Marián Vajda, fitness coach Gebhard Phil-Gritsch and physiotherapist Miljan Amanović, hoping to find a new spark. On the 21st of May he announced that Andre Agassi would coach him, starting at the French Open. The Eastbourne title that followed was his only tournament win without Vajda until their 2022 split. At Wimbledon he retired from his quarterfinal against Tomáš Berdych with an elbow injury. On the 26th of July he said he would miss the US Open and the rest of the season. That ended a run of 51 consecutive Grand Slam appearances going back to his debut in 2005. He finished the year ranked No. 12, his lowest placing since 2006.

  In late January 2018 he had elbow surgery. The comeback was slow, with early losses to Taro Daniel at Indian Wells and Benoît Paire in Miami. He reunited with Vajda at the Monte-Carlo Masters and said afterwards, "After two years finally I can play without pain." His ranking dropped to No. 22 in the spring, the first time outside the top 20 since October 2006. At Wimbledon he then beat Nadal in five sets over two days, in the second-longest semifinal in the tournament's history to that date. He beat Kevin Anderson in the final in straight sets for his fourth Wimbledon and 13th major, and returned to the top 10. In Cincinnati he beat Federer in straight sets and became the first singles player to complete the Career Golden Masters. A US Open win over del Potro gave him his 14th major. He regained the top ranking after Nadal withdrew from the Paris Masters, and secured the year-end No. 1 for a fifth time.

  He opened 2019 by beating Nadal in the Australian Open final, for a record seventh title there and his 15th major. At the French Open, Dominic Thiem beat him in a five-set marathon. That ended a 26-match winning streak in majors and his bid for a second Nole Slam. He closed the decade with a fifth Paris Masters title, beating Denis Shapovalov, and was regarded as the most successful player in men's tennis of the 2010s.

  In January 2020 he led Serbia to victory at the inaugural ATP Cup with six wins, including over Medvedev in the semifinals and Nadal in the final. He then beat Federer in the Australian Open semifinals and Thiem in five sets in the final, for his eighth title in Melbourne and 17th major. That made him the first player in the Open Era to win Grand Slams in three different decades. It was also his first comeback win from two sets to one down in a major final.

  His ninth Australian Open came in 2021, over Daniil Medvedev. On the 1st of March he passed Federer's Open Era record of 310 weeks at No. 1. At the French Open he beat Nadal in the semifinals in four sets, then came back from two sets down against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final. He became the first man in the Open Era to win a major after coming back from two sets down twice in one event, and the first to win all four majors at least twice. At Wimbledon he earned his 100th grass-court win on the way to beating Matteo Berrettini in the final. It was his sixth title there and his 20th major, tying Federer and Nadal. He was only the second man to win majors on all three surfaces in a single year, and the fifth in the Open Era to take the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season.

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• 6. Rivals

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  Djokovic and Rafael Nadal met 60 times, the most prolific rivalry in the men's game in the Open Era, and Djokovic leads 31-29. Surface divides them. Djokovic leads 20-7 on hard courts, Nadal leads 20-9 on clay, and grass is level at 2-2. Djokovic is the only player to have beaten Nadal at all four majors. Their 2012 Australian Open final lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes, the longest major final ever played. At the 2013 Monte-Carlo Masters he ended Nadal's run of eight consecutive titles there.

  Roger Federer faced him 50 times, with Djokovic ahead 27-23 and 13-6 in finals, not counting a 2014 walkover. Djokovic is the only player to beat Federer multiple times at Federer's most successful tournaments: four times at the Australian Open, three times at the US Open and three times at the year-end championship. He also beat Federer in three Wimbledon finals. Their last final, at Wimbledon in 2019, lasted 4 hours and 57 minutes, the longest in the tournament's history. Djokovic won in five sets despite winning fewer points, saving two championship points along the way.

  Andy Murray was born a week before Djokovic, so the two climbed the junior ranks together. Murray won their first match, as teenagers, at Les Petits As in 2001. Over 36 meetings Djokovic led 25-11. They are one of two pairs to have met in all four major finals, and the other pair is Djokovic and Nadal. In 2016 the year-end No. 1 ranking was decided in their final at the World Tour Finals, and Murray won in straight sets.

  Stan Wawrinka lost 21 of 27 meetings, yet he is the one rival who repeatedly hurt Djokovic at majors. At the 2013 Australian Open, Djokovic won their fourth-round match 12-10 in the fifth set, and it is considered one of the best ever played. A year later Wawrinka won 9-7 in the fifth set. That broke Djokovic's run of 14 consecutive major semifinals and ended a 28-match winning streak. Wawrinka went on to win his first major at that tournament. Djokovic got revenge in 2015 with a 6-0 fifth set. Wawrinka then won the 2015 French Open final in four sets. Of Djokovic's 13 major finals from the 2014 Wimbledon Championships through the 2020 Australian Open, his only two losses were to Wawrinka.

  Daniil Medvedev took a different kind of toll. At the 2021 US Open, Djokovic was one match from a calendar-year Grand Slam, a feat achieved in men's singles only by Don Budge in 1938 and Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969. He made a high number of uncharacteristic errors, and Medvedev won the final in straight sets for his first major. Djokovic leads their series 10-5 and holds a 3-1 edge in Grand Slam matches. The second set of their 2023 US Open final, which Djokovic won in a tiebreaker, lasted 104 minutes.

  Carlos Alcaraz is 16 years younger, yet they have won five matches each in ten meetings. Alcaraz won their first, the 2022 Madrid Masters semifinal, in a deciding-set tiebreak. At the 2023 French Open Djokovic won their semifinal in four sets after Alcaraz began to cramp. The 2023 Wimbledon final went to Alcaraz in five sets and 4 hours and 42 minutes. It ended Djokovic's hopes of a calendar Grand Slam and a record 45-match winning streak on Centre Court. A month later in Cincinnati, Djokovic won from a set down and a break down in the second set, and saved a championship point in the second-set tiebreak. At 3 hours and 49 minutes, it was the longest best-of-three-set final on tour, and it was immediately hailed as one of the best matches ever.

  Jannik Sinner has met Djokovic eleven times and leads 6-5. Their first meeting was at the 2021 Monte-Carlo Masters, and Djokovic won the first three. Sinner earned his first win at the 2023 ATP Finals, but Djokovic beat him in the final of the same tournament. Sinner won the 2024 Shanghai Masters final in straight sets.

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• 7. Controversy And Causes

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  In June 2020, Djokovic organized the Adria Tour, a series of exhibition events. He tested positive for COVID-19, along with several other participants, and critics pointed to the lack of safety protocols. He apologized and admitted that he and his team "were wrong", though he later described the criticism as a "witch hunt". Weeks later at the US Open, he was disqualified from his fourth-round match after hitting a ball toward the advertising hoarding and unintentionally striking a lineswoman.

  The larger storm came in January 2022. To play the Australian Open, players had to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or hold a medical exemption. Djokovic received an exemption from Tennis Australia and the Department of Health of Victoria, citing a positive test on the 16th of December 2021. He arrived in Melbourne on the 5th of January, but the Australian Border Force detained him for failing to meet the entry requirements for unvaccinated travellers. He later admitted an error on his travel declaration form, since he had been in Spain shortly before. His visa was cancelled and he was held in a detention hotel while he appealed. On the 10th of January, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia ordered his release, noting that he had not been given enough time to consult lawyers and tennis officials. On the 14th of January, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke cancelled the visa again under the Migration Act 1958, citing public health and order. The Federal Court of Australia upheld the decision, and Djokovic was deported on the 16th of January.

  The fallout followed him around the world. He skipped Indian Wells and Miami because of United States entry restrictions on unvaccinated foreigners. After a quarterfinal loss in Dubai, he lost the No. 1 ranking to Medvedev, the first time since 2004 that a player outside the Big Four held the top spot. The same restrictions kept him out of the US Open that year. In between, at Wimbledon in 2022, he beat Nick Kyrgios in four sets for a seventh title there and his 21st major, passing Federer. He ended 2022 by winning a record-equaling sixth ATP Finals title, though he finished the year ranked No. 5.

  Off the court, Djokovic was elected president of the ATP Player Council in 2016. In 2020 he stepped down to lead the Professional Tennis Players Association, a player-only body he co-founded with Vasek Pospisil. The group argues that players need more influence on the tour and a better prize money structure for lower-ranked players. He also founded the Novak Djokovic Foundation, which supports children from disadvantaged communities, and became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2015. Honors at home include the Order of Karađorđe Star, the Order of St. Sava and the Order of the Republika Srpska, and he has been named BTA Best Balkan Athlete of the Year a record eight times.

  He met his future wife, Jelena Ristić, in high school and began dating her in 2005. They became engaged in September 2013. On the 10th of July 2014, they married on Montenegro's Sveti Stefan island, in the Serbian Orthodox Church of Saint Stephen. Their son was born that October, and their daughter in 2017. Djokovic describes himself as a fan of languages and speaks Serbian, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish to varying degrees. The Australian Open that had deported him would, one year later, give him a very different welcome.

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• 8. Late Records

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  Djokovic opened 2023 in Adelaide, saving a championship point to beat Sebastian Korda for his 92nd title. At the Australian Open, despite a hamstring problem, he beat Tsitsipas in the final for a record-extending tenth title there, and took back the No. 1 ranking. At the French Open he beat Casper Ruud in the final for a record 23rd major, and became the first man to complete a triple Career Grand Slam. At the US Open he beat Medvedev for his 24th men's singles major, becoming the oldest US Open men's singles champion of the Open Era. He then won the ATP Finals and clinched a record eighth year-end No. 1.

  The following January in Melbourne, Jannik Sinner beat him in four sets in the semifinal. It ended a 33-match winning streak at the event, and Djokovic called it "one of the worst Grand Slam matches I've ever played". At Indian Wells he lost to Luca Nardi, ranked No. 123, the lowest-ranked player ever to beat him at a Masters 1000 or Grand Slam. In Geneva he earned his 1,100th career win on his 37th birthday, becoming the third man in the Open Era to reach that mark, with the best win percentage of the three at 83.5 percent. At the French Open, a five-set match with Lorenzo Musetti ended at 3:07 a.m., the latest finish in the tournament's history. In the next round he beat Francisco Cerúndolo in 4 hours and 39 minutes, his longest match at Roland Garros, passing Federer for the most Grand Slam match wins. But he tore the medial meniscus in his right knee in that match, withdrew before the quarterfinals, and lost the No. 1 ranking to Sinner.

  In November 2024, Djokovic began working with Andy Murray as his coach. In May 2025 the two agreed to part ways, and assistant coach and analyst Boris Bošnjaković took over full coaching responsibility for the rest of the season. Before that, at the 2025 Australian Open, his second-round match was his 430th career major main draw singles match, passing Federer's all-time record. He retired from his semifinal against Alexander Zverev after one set because of a muscle tear. In Miami he beat Camilo Ugo Carabelli for his 411th main draw win at the Masters 1000 level, passing Nadal's 410. He lost the final to Jakub Menšík.

  Geneva delivered another milestone that May, when he beat Hubert Hurkacz in the final for the 100th ATP singles title of his career. He became the first player to win at least one ATP title in twenty consecutive seasons, and the third in the Open Era to reach 100 titles, after Jimmy Connors and Federer. At the French Open and Wimbledon, Sinner beat him in straight sets in the semifinals. After Wimbledon he said the "age, the wear and tear of the body" limited his ability to beat players like Sinner or Alcaraz. It was his first time missing the Wimbledon final since 2017. At the inaugural Hellenic Championship, he beat Musetti in the final for his 101st tour-level title and his 72nd on hard courts, an all-time record he had shared with Federer. At 38 years and 5 months, he became the oldest men's singles champion on the ATP Tour since its founding in 1990.

  At the 2026 Australian Open, Djokovic beat Sinner in five sets in the semifinal to reach his 11th final at Melbourne Park. At 38 he was the oldest finalist there. His bid for a record 25th major ended against Alcaraz, whose win made him the youngest male player to complete a Career Grand Slam.

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