How Novak Djokovic finally embraced the role of Wimbledon’s pantomime villain

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After last year’s Wimbledon final, it was tempting to wonder whether Novak Djokovic’s defeat to Carlos Alcaraz signalled the start of a change. Djokovic, chasing a fifth straight Wimbledon title, was defeated in an epic five-set battle in his first Championships defeat since 2017. As he reflected on the end of his dominance at the All England Club, Djokovic was gracious, his praise for the young Alcaraz glowing and sincere. After so many victories, it was a little surprising to see such a fierce competitor embrace the rare taste of defeat like an old friend, mirroring a win some, lose some attitude to the Centre Court crowd.

But rather than marking a shift toward a more mutually appreciative relationship, the opposite has happened. On Monday night, as Djokovic secured a fourth-round victory over Holger Rune, the seven-time champion turned on sections of the Wimbledon crowd for “disrespecting” Rune with shouts of “Ruuuuuuune!” which sounded a lot like “Boooooooo!”

Djokovic had played Rune before and knew that such a reaction from the crowd to the Dane was nothing new. However, Djokovic chose to hear the boos. It served as fuel to raise his level and get one step closer to an eighth title.

Djokovic actively taking on the crowd, or at least the loudest parts of it, was a defining moment in his long Wimbledon saga. “I’ve played in much more hostile environments, trust me, you can’t touch me,” sounded like a challenge to those cheering him on, and the SW19 crowd seemed to embrace it after a straight-sets win over Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti. This time, the boos were unmistakable.

Djokovic uses every trick in the book to push himself, and even when he’s not on the court he seems as relaxed as he’s ever been in his career. At Wimbledon, his matches are watched by his eight-year-old son and six-year-old daughter. He spends his days between matches with his children on the practice courts and celebrates victories by pretending to play the violin, following a promise he made to his daughter.

So at 37, and with a record 24 Grand Slam titles already under his belt, Djokovic’s actions suggest he no longer cares that he doesn’t get the same love or admiration from everyone in the crowd that his former rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal so long enjoyed. Now at peace with his own achievements, the mask is off.

Or at least until Sunday night, when he attempts to equal Federer’s Wimbledon record for most men’s singles titles with eight. Djokovic isn’t the first athlete to use outside noise and confrontations as a source of motivation. Michael Jordan famously conjured up trash talk from rival opponents and used any criticism directed at him to lead the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles. The release of the ‘Last Dance’ documentary and Jordan’s retelling of his win-at-all-costs mentality has influenced a new generation of stars in the sporting world, as evidenced by the way England and Jude Bellingham have repeatedly spoken about using perceived negativity surrounding their performance at Euro 2024 as “fuel” to reach the final, even when the team was objectively underperforming.

It’s hardly surprising that Djokovic himself would develop such a siege mentality after arriving in the era of Federer and Nadal, arguably the two most popular players of all time, and subsequently surpassing them both. In terms of Grand Slams, it took Djokovic 15 years to reach 23 titles in his own right after winning the 2023 French Open, with many of his biggest victories coming when he took on Federer or Nadal and won against the crowd. It’s now two years since Nadal played Wimbledon, three years since Federer withdrew from the Championships, but it remains the case that while Djokovic is cheered on by die-hard fans everywhere he goes, there are just as many people rooting for his opponent. He may well become a victim of his own success and desire to spring an upset.

For a time during his most dominant run, Djokovic attempted to win over the crowd by turning to all four sides of the court and celebrating with his post-match “love” gesture, but it was always dismissed as performative and seen as trying too hard. In his older years, especially now that he holds the lifetime Grand Slam record, Djokovic has been more forthright in repeatedly denying the attempts of the next generation, the level of tennis he showed even last year by winning three of the four Grand Slams impossible not to respect. Whether that ever turns into “love” doesn’t really seem to matter anymore, either.

At 37, the reality that Djokovic’s chances of winning more Grand Slam titles are dwindling has never been clearer than ahead of this year’s Wimbledon. It was simply assumed that Djokovic was out of the tournament when he withdrew from his French Open quarter-final last month and underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. After reaching a 49th Grand Slam semi-final, he has called his recovery from surgery to start at Wimbledon one of the greatest achievements of his career. Winning the title would be nothing short of extraordinary, particularly against Alcaraz in the final, with Daniil Medvedev, who played against ‘the big three’ and lost to the Spaniard in the semi-final, describing him as his best-ever opponent.

If Djokovic projects a more relaxed personality off the court, he will remain as competitive and determined as ever on it. “The tension, the pressure, the stress is really high, just as high as ever,” Djovkovic said this week. In doing so, he will gratefully accept more fuel for the fire within himself as he tries to reclaim his throne.