Novak Djokovic has offered one of his most candid assessments yet of life at the top as he approaches 40, admitting that age is now impossible to ignore even as his hunger for a record-extending 25th Grand Slam title remains undimmed.
Speaking to CBS Mornings in an interview aired on Friday, the 39-year-old was asked whether his age crosses his mind while he keeps chasing the sport’s biggest prizes. He replied that when other people do not remind him, his own body does — “my body reminds me of my age,” he told host Gayle King — before adding that he is constantly hunting for any extra edge that lets him compete with a younger generation.
That generation is now led by Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the two men who have turned Djokovic’s pursuit of major number 25 into the hardest challenge of his late career. The Serb has not lifted a Grand Slam trophy since the 2023 US Open, a drought that would once have seemed unthinkable across a career that has produced 24 majors, an Olympic gold medal and a record 428 weeks at world No. 1.
Yet Djokovic framed the situation less as decline than as fuel. He said there is always something to prove — chiefly to himself — and that his aim remains simply to be better than he was the day before. It is a theme he has returned to repeatedly through a run of near-misses at the majors, and one that suggests retirement is nowhere near his immediate plans, whatever the physical cost of staying in the fight.
The interview arrives as Djokovic promotes a new film on his life and career, Novak Djokovic: The Wolf in Winter, which streams worldwide on Prime Video from 20 August. Directed by The Last Dance filmmaker Jason Hehir, the documentary lands days before the final Grand Slam of the season, giving the veteran a rare double presence — on screen and on court — as the North American hard-court swing builds toward New York.
Djokovic’s 2026 has been strong by most standards, if short of the titles he craves. He reached the Australian Open final, where he was beaten by Alcaraz, and made the semi-finals at Wimbledon before losing to eventual champion Sinner. Both results underlined the same truth: he remains capable of beating almost anyone over three sets, but the physical toll of going the distance against Sinner or Alcaraz in best-of-five has grown steeper.
The draw that awaits him in New York is unusually open at the top. Sinner arrives as the man to beat after defending his Wimbledon crown, while Alcaraz — the two-time defending US Open champion — is working back from a wrist injury that has kept him off tour since the spring. For Djokovic, that uncertainty around his chief rivals may offer a sliver of opportunity, provided his own body holds up across a fortnight of five-set tennis in the New York heat.
The frankness about his physical limits is not new, but its timing is pointed. Djokovic turned 39 in May and has trimmed his schedule in recent seasons to protect himself for the events that matter most to him. The majors are now the organising principle of his calendar, and the US Open — whose main draw begins on 30 August — is his last, best chance of the year to end the Grand Slam wait.
Asked about the wider game, Djokovic also touched on Serena Williams’ recent return to the sport, a reminder that questions of age, motivation and legacy hang over more than one of tennis’ defining champions this summer.
Whether he can turn that motivation into a 25th title remains the sport’s most compelling open question. What his latest comments make clear is that, for now, the fire has not gone out — even if the body occasionally reminds him how long it has been burning
