Novak Djokovic: The Relentless Perfectionist and Quiet Mentor
Novak Djokovic has spent a career dividing opinion. Twenty-four Grand Slams, countless weeks at world No. 1, and yet as much noise about his character as about his forehand. Deportation from Australia, default at the 2020 US Open – the flashpoints are well known, replayed every time his name comes up.
Inside the locker room, though, a different Djokovic walks around.
The mentor behind the rival
His long-time physio Carlos Costa has watched it up close. Speaking on “A BOLA”, Costa painted a picture that jars with the caricature of the cold, calculating champion.
“He loves helping younger players,” Costa said. Not tolerates. Loves.
Training sessions, the kind most elite players guard like state secrets, often turn into impromptu clinics. Djokovic will stop, walk over, and start talking to the very men trying to take his place.
Felix Auger-Aliassime asked for advice. Djokovic helped immediately. Joao Fonseca looked for guidance. Same response. No cameras, no PR push. Just a 24-time major winner leaning over the net and sharing the tricks of a trade he has spent two decades perfecting.
He then faced both of them this season.
At Wimbledon, Djokovic outlasted Auger-Aliassime in a five-set quarter-final epic: 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6. At Roland Garros, Fonseca turned the script on its head, coming from two sets down to beat him 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 in the third round.
The advice clearly doesn’t come with a safety net.
Costa says the generosity extends beyond direct rivals. American teenager Iva Jovic has also tapped into Djokovic’s knowledge on several occasions. Quietly, without fanfare, the Serb has become a sounding board for a generation he is still trying to hold off.
You can debate his popularity. You cannot say he isn’t giving back.
An obsession with the tiny margins
If the mentoring shows the softer side, Costa’s second revelation explains why Djokovic is still here, still hunting, still angry at losing.
“I have never seen anything like Novak Djokovic,” Costa said. “His vision, what he puts in every single day on the court, and his intensity.”
The word that keeps coming up is detail.
He notices everything. The time it takes to hand him a towel. The order of treatments. Any deviation from the plan, Costa admits, creates “friction”. Not because Djokovic is difficult for the sake of it, but because his entire career has been built on squeezing every last drop out of his body and mind.
Inside his team, he runs his own tests. He challenges his staff, probes their methods, pushes them to justify every drill and every recovery strategy. If there is a better way to prepare, he wants to find it before anyone else does.
One example stuck with Costa. Djokovic saw that Jannik Sinner was doing specific eye-training work. Why aren’t we doing that, he asked. Not as a passing comment. As a demand for an answer.
The physio prides himself on staying current, taking courses, learning from other sports. Djokovic still pushes further. He watches videos. He scans the locker room. He sees a rival trying something new and immediately interrogates the idea.
And the response from his team, Costa says, “can’t take too long.” The standard is non-negotiable.
Chasing Sinner, chasing 25
There is a reason Sinner, in particular, has Djokovic’s attention.
The Italian now sits at world No. 1. He has collected five Grand Slam titles since Djokovic last lifted a major trophy. Their head-to-head tells its own story: Sinner leads 7–5 and beat Djokovic comfortably at Wimbledon this year.
For the first time in a decade, Djokovic is no longer the automatic benchmark. He is the hunter, not the hunted.
If he is to reclaim the top of men’s tennis and secure that elusive 25th Slam, the margins he obsesses over will matter more than ever. The eye training. The towel timing. The recovery routines. The questions he fires at Costa and the rest of his team behind closed doors.
His next step comes in Beijing, at the China Open, where he will play his first match since the US Open when the event begins on Monday, September 28.
The polarising figure, the relentless perfectionist, the quiet mentor of his own rivals – all of them will walk onto that court. The only question left is whether that mix is still enough to bend the sport to his will one more time.
