“Saw a Plane Dropping Two Bombs”- Novak Djokovic Recalls Near-Death Experience at 11 Years Old In Serbia

The sound of the bombs that tore through the hometown of an eleven-year-old boy still keeps him awake twenty-eight years later, even after he has achieved everything he possibly could in the sport of tennis.

That boy is none other than Novak Djokovic, who recounted a spine-chilling episode from the NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1999 in his new documentary, Novak Djokovic: The Wolf in Winter, when he was separated from his family as they sought safety.

“I saw my family running 40, 50 feet in front of me,” he said. “And I tried to scream, ‘help me, help me’. They didn’t hear me, they kept running.”

“Our building did not have a shelter. So we had to go to another building. It’s a horrifying sight because this is 2-3 a.m. It was dark. You see people running around, panicking. They don’t know where to go, trying to save their lives,” he added. 

He then described turning back toward his own building just in time to witness a direct strike nearby. “I turned around and I looked at our building. And I saw a plane dropping two bombs into a nearby hospital. Standing in the rain and darkness.”

Djokovic had shared instances of that period of his life even in his book Serve to Win. He had revealed back then that his family sought shelter in his aunt’s basement for 78 consecutive nights when bombing continued across Belgrade. The documentary now provides a deeper look into how the Serb felt at the moment.

Before its launch, Djokovic said it was an effort to present a different side of his story that goes beyond the tennis court. “Tennis gave me a lot, but the biggest battles were never just on the court. This documentary is about the moments that people didn’t see, the doubts, the sacrifices and the work that constantly evolved beyond the story that many think they know,” he said.

In 2019, the BBC reported that a mural of Novak Djokovic was painted on the walls of the apartment he took shelter in, which is located in Banjica, a residential area about 7km south of downtown Belgrade.

Hence, the title of the documentary is no accident. The wolf is Serbia’s national animal, a creature woven into the country’s folklore. It’s a symbol of fearlessness, endurance, and survival against impossible odds, central to Serbian’s identity.

Djokovic has shared that the wolf is his spirit animal, and on numerous occasions after winning matches from the brink, he has howled in celebration, something he does in the film as well. It resembles how someone who has endured such struggle in their life, physically and mentally, could rise to glory. All with the wolf spirit that carried him from dodging bombs as an 11-year-old to becoming arguably the greatest of all time.

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