Novak Djokovic, Going Deep

Translating the aging champion's revealing remarks in Serbian from his last words at this U.S. Open.

[On a train home from] NEW YORK — As I mentioned at the end of my last bounce¹, my intended programming schedule for the end stages of the 2025 U.S. Open were upended, understandably, by the breaking news reporting I could do here at Bounces covering Donald Trump’s disruptive trip to the men’s final, on both his invitation to the Rolex suite and also about the USTA’s request to broadcasters to censor reactions to Trump from those in attendance.

I have no regrets about doing those stories—and thanks to the many of you who read, shared, and linked to them to help shatter Bounces web traffic numbers over the weekend—but it does mean that some of the other ripening story bananas in my Bounces banana basket have turned browner than they otherwise would have as time passed by.

But personally, I enjoy a speckled dark yellow banana, and I think this one is a nice sweet treat: for the third consecutive major, I enlisted the help of a Serbian translator to illuminate and elucidate the mind of Novak Djokovic.

Novak Djokovic at the 2025 U.S. Open (Photo by Regina Cortina)

The 38-year-old has been one of the most compelling and enigmatic stories in men’s tennis in 2025, finding himself both consistently close but disappointingly distant to an elusive 25^th major title, stuck behind the dominant Sinner-Alcaraz duopoly. Djokovic made four major semifinals this year—an amazing record for a player of any age—but won zero sets in those four appearances, which would be a difficult pattern for any player to digest.

Previous translations here of his press conferences after Roland Garros and Wimbledon both proved popular with Bounces subscribers, which I was glad to see as a return for this investment, and I’m hoping this one will resonate as well.

So below for Bounces subscribers, I have a new full transcript, again professionally translated to English, of the Serbian portion of Djokovic’s press conference after his U.S. Open semifinal loss to Carlos Alcaraz on Friday.

This was a much longer press conference for Djokovic than the previous two translated here. In it, he discussed a range of topics including his plans for the future, his appraisal of this season, which major semifinal he felt closest to winning this year, how it feels to be getting more crowd support than ever before from previously unsympathetic crowds, and the pieces of specific advice he got from a WTA legend on the practice courts.

Also, if you have nominations for other players you might like to see featured in similar translation features in the future—from any language—please let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading and subscribing to Bounces! -Ben