00:00It's great to be back in New York. Hello everyone. It was a very nice moment obviously that I was
00:14allowed to experience by the USDA and US Open an hour ago at the Arthur Ashkidd's Day. A great
00:22tribute video and obviously some fun with hitting the targets in the end and just kind of sharing my
00:30thoughts, my emotions and experiences of reflection on what is for me I think now when I look back
00:37the greatest achievement and the greatest highlight of my career overall winning the
00:43gold for Serbia. I had some heartbreaking losses at the Olympic Games, worked very hard to try to
00:52get myself in a position to fight for gold and at 37 I thought you know I don't know could this be
00:59the last chance maybe so I had to push more than ever that I have ever done and turned out to be
01:06one of the best performances I had in years overall throughout the entire tournament and then of
01:12course in the finals against Carlos. It was a kind of a dream scenario really having my wife and
01:19children there and the entire nation watching. Just a very proud moment of experiencing the
01:27golden medal you know around my neck with a Serbian anthem and Serbian flag. Very very special
01:35and probably the most intense emotions I've ever had on a tennis court. I was saying that
01:41carrying the flag being a flag bearer for my country in opening games in 2012 in London at
01:48the Olympic Games was the best feeling I had overall in my professional career surpassed every
01:55slam that I won until I won the gold medal and that was just I think the moment of when I
02:01achieved it how I achieved it you know after years of trying and the journey that was
02:10the way it was I think makes it even more unique.
02:13The first time you came in New York is 2003 for a junior tournament. I would like to know which
02:20memories do you keep from the first time you discovered the city and how did you enjoy New York at 16 years old?
02:29I do remember that I did not play a US Open junior match outdoors. We did play indoors because it was
02:47raining so we had to travel by bus to a different facility to play so I didn't really experience the
02:56US Open at that point in time but as soon after I played my first main draw as a professional
03:06player and I had a couple of great matches and some marathon matches with Gal Monfils I remember
03:15and Mario Antic and if I'm not mistaken my first first US Open as a pro so yeah it was
03:23amazing to be part of the Grand Slam and you know play on the outside courts
03:31just very different to the stadium court and I remember the first time I played at the Ash
03:38Stadium it was overwhelming you know for a young player so it's been quite a journey
03:45I'm really grateful for everything that I experienced since then.
03:49Vinay for Inside Tennis, so since 2008 you first competed in the Olympics you came all the way to
03:572024 to win your first gold there's been a weird stat at the US Open that no man has defended the
04:03US Open title since 2008 so what do you need to do differently this year as defending champion
04:08to change the stat?
04:12Try to win the title I think for starters yeah I didn't know about that I knew that
04:21you know it was probably the case for five ten years but I didn't know it was that long so
04:29yeah I mean hopefully that changes this year I mean that's that's the goal you know the goal
04:33is always for me to try to go all the way to the finals and fight for the trophy I mean
04:40that kind of mindset or approach is no different for me this year
04:47you know people would ask me you know now that you've basically won everything with a golden
04:51medal you know what is else there to win and you know I still feel the drive you know I still
05:01have the competitive spirit I still want to make more history and enjoy myself on the tour I still
05:10hope to inspire many young people to watch tennis or play tennis those are some of the reasons why
05:18I still keep on going and Grand Slams are the pillars of our sport they're the most important
05:25historical tennis events that we have so if you don't get pumped and inspired to play your best
05:32tennis in Grand Slams it's hard to do that anyway anywhere else and US Open is a slam that holds
05:43the biggest tennis court in the world tennis stadium you know night sessions of US Open are
05:48very famous most famous in our sport and I'm going to play my first match here on Monday night
05:56so I can't wait to be under the lights the noise the energy of the stadium is just different from
06:04anything else so you know I look forward to it Howard I know that Howard Fenrich with the
06:10Associated Press wanted to ask you as a top player as a sort of statesman of the game somebody
06:18involved with the PTPA and you have big thoughts about the game I wanted to get your perspective
06:25on what happened with Janik and some players have wondered aloud whether it's a fair system
06:36whether different rules are applied to different players and wanted to ask your thoughts on that
06:42case well instances like this are the very reason why we founded PTPA the ethos of PTPA is the
06:55player is representing 100% the players rights and making sure that you can cover every possible
07:08corner there is to cover so that the player is able to not only endure on the tour but to live
07:16out of the sport and we talked about the depth of the rankings and the players that are able to live
07:24out of the sport and I think that needs to be improved so there's a lot of topics that are
07:34being talked about and being worked on from the PTPA standpoint and PTPA has not yet been
07:42I think acknowledged as much as we would like it to be acknowledged in the ecosystem
07:48many reasons why but you know I'm not going to get into that
07:54and as far as Janik's case you know
08:01as I said these kind of instances are the very reason why we founded PTPA that is always advocating
08:08for fair protocols clear protocols for standardized approaches to this kind of cases and
08:18I understand that the frustration of the of the players is there because of lack of consistency
08:30and as I understood his case was cleared the moment basically it was announced
08:37but you know I think five or six months passed since the news was brought to him and his team
08:49so yeah I mean there's a lot of issues in the system
08:55we see lack of standardized and clear protocols I can understand the sentiments of a lot of
09:04players that are questioning whether they are treated the same and hopefully the governing
09:12bodies of our sport will be able to learn from this case and have a better approach for the
09:19future I think collectively there has to be a change and I think that's obvious and many players
09:28without naming any of them I'm sure you know already who these players are have had similar
09:36or same pretty much the same cases where they haven't had the same outcome and now the question
09:42is whether it is a case of the funds whether a player can afford to pay a significant amount
09:54a significant amount of money for a law firm that would then more efficiently represent his or her
10:02case I don't know is that a case or not that's something that we really I feel like collectively
10:10have to investigate more look into into the system and understand how these cases don't happen
10:17how meaning not the case itself but how how we can standardize everything so that every player
10:23regardless of his ranking or status or profile is able to get the same kind of treatment so yeah
10:30I would say that's that's probably the overall I guess my opinion and observation of of this
10:39entire case of what we've been reading and observing and talking about the last few days
10:46One more in English. Hi Novak, Giddy from Defector Media. I was wondering at this point of your career
10:54there's not much left on your checklist tennis wise so do your matchups against specific players
10:59factor into your long-term planning for example after Wimbledon almost immediately you have this
11:04huge success against Carlos so how does that result impact your planning about hanging with
11:10these younger talents the ones you see most likely to pose a challenge in the years to come?
11:16I mean I've been around for quite a few years and different generations of players are
11:26you know kind of switching and the new players exciting players coming into the tour
11:32the new rivalries are being created which I think is important for the tour in general
11:39and these kind of rivalries that I have with Janik and Carlos in particular of course along with
11:49other other guys from the generation before like Zverev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas you know are
11:58the kind of matchups that still bring that joy of competition to me and
12:09inspire me to really on a weekly basis when I'm not competing push myself to perfect the game
12:16and to give myself an ability to be able to run for hours with them
12:24on the biggest stage of course you know the there's a big the age difference but you know
12:33that's still not I guess affecting me in a big way I feel good about myself about my game about
12:41where I am and what I have achieved in the last several years
12:44excuse me so but of course I have to be a bit more selective in my strategy of calendar and how I
12:54pick and choose events and where I want to be at my prime and play the best tennis so
13:03when it comes to that it's grand slams and representing my country that's what
13:08actually motivates me the most that's what drives me the most still
13:13um yeah and I that that that's related to the on-court I guess competition driven motivation
13:24but then I have also a lot of things off the court that that still you know run my juices and I love
13:31I love being you know part of out of the tennis store and um DTPA that we talked about is is is
13:40also something that that motivates me that I you know have been working on for many years even
13:48before it was founded and tried always to advocate for players and even before that in in the player
13:55council within the ATP structure so um I feel like it's also part of my responsibility as being
14:03somebody who has uh has a sound name and a status in sport and you know a lot of players look up
14:10you know to to me and and Feather and Nadal you know the legends of the game and and they look
14:17for some kind of guidance and they they they carefully listen to our words and and actions and
14:24they you know hope to um to get that kind of leadership as well so that's that's what I
14:32personally feel I always try to you know balance things out but you know I think that I can
14:37contribute to uh certain things in a positive way and that's that's why I'm still here.
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