Mailbag: Behind-the-Scenes Look at Novak Djokovic's '60 Minutes' Profile

Here’s how a trip to Serbia to interview the tennis legend came together, with a peek into the dynamic between interviewer and subject.

Hey, everyone.

Next week we can discuss the slow momentum for the Super Tour, the progress of Tennis Ventures, the shakeup at the WTA, Nick Kyrgios’s lingering injury and more. For this week, I figured we’d double down on Novak Djokovic content.

• Here’s the 60 Minutes piece.

• Here are some outtakes (which perhaps play better with a tennis crowd than a general audience).

Jon, I will withhold judgment until after I see the piece. But I first want to know: how does an interview like this happen?

Pete K.

• Got a number of questions adjacent to this, some phrased more generously than others. I’ll go here: with some reservation and discomfort and awareness that this is contrary to the idea that journalists should never make themselves the story. But I also think at least some of the current media distrust and mistrust would be improved if there were more transparency into process and backstory/origin story. So, in the spirit of breaking down the fourth wall …

I hope I am not violating confidences, but earlier this year I had a clear-the-air session with the Djokovic camp. They thought I had been unnecessarily harsh in some of my writing and TV commentary. I thought some of Djokovic’s choices and behaviors, especially during the pandemic, were unworthy of him, especially as someone who has positioned himself as a leader.

Here’s the wild (and quite heartening) part: No one raised their voice or cursed or pointed fingers. No one said, “I’m done with you,” or “I don’t want to listen to you” or “I don’t want to reason with you.” We explained ourselves. I heard them. They heard me. No one apologized, per se; but when everyone said their piece, we shook hands warmly. All good.

Spend time wading in the toxic cesspool of social media—as, regrettably, so many of us do/must—and it’s easy to get assaulted by creepy invective spewed by utter strangers, exaggerated outrage, and bad-faith arguments. It’s easy to enter your confirmation bias silo, to use clown emoji and substitute “do better” or “maybe sit this one out” for actual conversation. And it’s easy to forget that in the real world, people still can and do behave with civility and reason. This interaction was such a reassurance that people can still reach different conclusions, accept that their reality isn’t everyone’s reality, take different positions, talk face-to-face and still maintain mutual respect.

Anyway, with the air cleared, his team and I spoke over the summer about putting together a 60 Minutes segment. I bounced this off two ace producers, Draggan Mihailovich and Emily Cameron. (Draggan oversaw the excellent Djokovic segment in 2011, a dozen years and 20 majors ago!) We all decided that it would be best to wait and see if Djokovic won the U.S. Open, as the timing might seem strange if, suddenly, he had lost consecutive majors. (Such is the standard he has set.) Djokovic, of course, took the U.S. Open title. He switched management teams after the Open, but we pressed on and found mutually convenient dates. He expressed an interest in doing the interview in Belgrade, which made sense. So we met the week after the Paris Indoors event and before Turin.

My read: It meant a lot to Djokovic that we came to Serbia. Multiple times, he thanked our entire crew for visiting and suggested that it doesn’t happen often. He offered some options for filming: During the week, he was planning on playing some golf (visually, meh). He was planning on riding a bike (meh). He was planning a dynamic stretching session (now we’re talking.) He let us film as he contorted himself. (Aside: Days earlier, he had played padel with Filip Krajinović. Now that would have been worth shooting!)

It was another banner year for Djokovic, who won three majors and reached the final in a fourth :: Robert Deutsch/USA TODAY Sports

The main sitdown interview occurred at his foundation headquarters. Nothing was off the table. There were no public relations minders. (In keeping with U.S. media rules of engagement, he was not provided questions in advance nor the opportunity to see the final product before air.) I think we both benefited from having a longtime relationship—we could get right to it and didn’t need to build rapport or, in sports cliché, spend a few rounds feeling each other out. For almost two hours, we talked about matters large and small, tennis and non-tennis; sometimes agreeing, sometimes not; sometimes joking, sometimes not; nothing sandpapered or glossed. I didn’t want to relitigate his vaccine status or Australia 2022, much less debate immunology. At the same time—and full credit to him for grasping this—in a sweeping interview, you could not omit this topic entirely.

I reread the transcript, and you know what was glaringly missing? Clichés. No PR word salad. No prepackaged talking points. A few times he restarted an answer, almost as if editing his thoughts as he went. It also was not lost on me that I was speaking in my first tongue; he in his … what, fourth? From my side, it felt like more of a fun, natural, lively conversation than an “interview.”

My producers and I had discussed finding “secondary characters.” Off-camera, we spoke with Djokovic’s wife, Jelena—a force in her own right—and other members of his team. The truth: Novak was so thoughtful and had so much to say, we reached the conclusion that it made best sense to use him as the lone voice. Which is saying something for a 13-minute piece of television.

One of you asked, “What would you like people to get out of it?” Fair question. I have no delusions here. His fans will like him no matter what. His haters will hate him no matter what. It is not my job—nor is it the intent—to change hearts and minds. But this is a national news show for a general audience, not hot-take social media or sports-talk radio. Humbly, I hope the casual fans or nonfans who asked, “Isn’t he the anti-vax guy?” or “Isn’t he the Denver Nuggets center?” or “You recently had Biden on your show; why devote a segment to a tennis player?” came away with a little more knowledge of—and appreciation for—someone who is, perhaps, the greatest athlete in sports today. And, on top of it, an uncommonly layered, thoughtful and complicated person.

A bit of offseason Q&A…

Jon,

Quick note: Jack Sock is missing from this week’s column. Don’t let the mailbag collapse into this kind of annual controversy! Thank you, again and always, for your coverage and the column.

MD

Asheville

• Wait, I just thought he was switching to a different implement? No, seriously, good catch. Jack Sock is also on this list of 2023 players who have left the proverbial kitchen.

Hi Jon,

Inspired by your wonderful recent TV profiles of important musicians and taking advantage of the offseason lull, I wanted to share these thoughts that your readers might find relevant, along with the corresponding, recently released tennis-inspired song of mine.

Peace,

Noah Baerman, Middletown, CT

• Thanks. I’ll never look at Matwe Middelkoop again the same way. You can’t geotag inspiration, can you?

Shots

• Great Britain’s Hannah Klugman won the Orange Bowl girls’ U-18 singles title Sunday, defeating American Tyra Grant (15; Bordighera, Italy) in straight sets. Grant, the tournament’s No. 6 seed, partnered with fellow American Iva Jovic (16; Torrance, Calif.) to win the girls’ U-18 doubles title Saturday, becoming the first team to win back-to-back Orange Bowl U-18 doubles titles since 1993 (the first year that doubles records were kept). In the boys’ U-18 singles final, Danil Panarin bested Romania’s Luca Preda in straight sets in a matchup of two unseeded players.

• All hail José Higueras.

• The 2023 WTA Player Award winners, as voted for by international tennis media, are:

Player of the Year: Iga Świątek

Doubles Team of the Year: Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens

Most Improved Player of the Year: Zheng Qinwen

Newcomer of the Year: Mirra Andreeva

Comeback Player of the Year: Elina Svitolina

Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award & Peachy Kellmeyer Player Service Award: Ons Jabeur

Jerry Diamond ACES Award: Jessica Pegula

Coach of the Year (as voted on by WTA registered coaches): Tomasz Wiktorowski

• Maria Sakkari and Sloane Stephens have committed to the 2024 Credit One Charleston Open, the largest women’s-only professional tennis tournament in North America. The event will take place from March 30 to April 7 on Daniel Island in Charleston, S.C. Named WTA 500 Tournament of the Year, the Charleston Open is the annual clay season kickoff event on the Hologic WTA Tour and is hosted at the newly renovated and modernized Credit One Stadium. Sakkari ended her WTA season ranked within the top 10 for the third year in a row. Stephens won the Charleston in ’16 and the U.S. Open in ’17. They join world No. 5 Pegula, No. 6 and defending Charleston champion Jabeur, and No. 12 and ’19 Charleston champion Madison Keys in next year’s field.

• The United States Tennis Association and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities today announced the recipients of the USTA Future Leaders in Sport Scholarship. Scholarships in the amount of $5,000 were awarded to the following students working toward a degree in sports management and enrolled at a HACU-member institution:

• Dakota Berreth, Arizona State University
• Alondra Rayo Vergara, Texas Woman’s University
• Giovanni Baltazar-Hernandez, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Pablo Maldonado Cuellar, Warner Pacific University

• The USTA today announced that U.S. Open referee Jake Garner has earned the prestigious Gold Badge referee distinction, and chair umpire Scotty Moore has been promoted to Silver Badge chair umpire under the Joint Certification Program administered by the ITF, ATP, WTA and Grand Slam tournaments.

Gold Badge is the highest certification level for tennis officiating, and Garner is now one of only eight officials worldwide—and the only American—to hold Gold Badge status as a referee and chief umpire simultaneously. Based out of the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Garner began his role as tournament referee of the U.S. Open in 2023 and served as chief umpire of the U.S. Open from ’19 to ’21 after a long and decorated career as a chair umpire. Garner has now achieved Gold Badge status as a chair umpire, chief umpire and referee.