How to Handle Pressure When the Whole Crowd Is Against You | US OPEN, Djokovic, Sabalenka, Osaka
In a Nutshell
Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic both reveal that accepting difficult emotions—nerves, grief, self-doubt—instead of resisting them prevents those feelings from growing stronger and frees mental energy for competition. They credit early holistic training, daily solitude practices (meditation, visualization, journaling), and supportive “inner circles” that include both cheerleaders and honest critics for building the resilience needed to convert hostile crowds, injuries, or losses into fuel. Ultimately, success is redefined as consistent discipline and identity beyond rankings: showing up every day, setting service-driven goals like retiring a parent, and continually reinventing oneself rather than chasing past shadows or external validation.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Winning a Grand Slam every time is an incredible feeling. This year's victory felt like the first time because of the struggles faced during the season. The win brought significant relief after the beauty of the achievement.
The season included two Grand Slam finals in Australia and Paris, both lost while considered the favorite. The losses were tough lessons that felt like the dream slipped away. This trophy represents learning those lessons and becoming a better player with improved emotional control.
Losing in the final hurts more because you're so close to the dream. The emotional response includes wanting to leave the place immediately to forget, followed by needing time to sit back and analyze the lessons. It takes time to process losses.
Never watching the lost finals personally. The team reviews the tennis aspects and brings feedback about what went wrong technically. The mental and emotional mistakes are already known. The reason for avoiding watching is not wanting to see oneself losing and seeing poor behavior. Watching would trigger pain and push the wound rather than allow learning from it.
Running to the team first because they put in the work. Hugging the boyfriend first, then the team, recognizing the constant conversation and support involved.
Feeling nervous before big tournaments is absolutely normal for every athlete. The preparation involves being ready to handle anything rather than trying to make nervous thoughts go away. The approach is accepting that it's okay to feel nervous and to think those thoughts, recognizing that everyone experiences this.
Loving the toughness of the experience and feeling grateful for the opportunity that not everyone has in life. Big opportunities come with big responsibility and big pressure, but the gratitude remains for having the chance.
The concept that what you resist persists. Trying to get rid of a thought or feeling makes it expand and take up more space. Accepting nervousness calms the situation, whereas thinking you're the only one feeling stressed creates additional problems.
Early in the tennis career, believing to be the only one feeling nervous led to focusing too much on that feeling and forgetting about the opponent. The realization that everyone experiences these feelings shifted the perspective to understanding both players are dealing with the same things, and success depends on who handles it better.
The unexpected loss of father was a tough moment due to their close relationship and similar personalities. He knew exactly what to say during struggles on court. Instead of becoming depressed, the approach was taking it as motivation, feeling he's present in heart and memory, having raised the champion and supporting from beyond.
Staying strong for mother who was struggling as a young woman losing her husband. Crying occurred privately when alone. The best way to process was going on court to practice and train, providing the only time without thinking about the loss. The repetition of hitting balls allowed focus until practice ended, then the thoughts would return.
Recognizing that birth, love, and death are things with zero control. Being grateful for 21 years spent together and knowing he's protecting now.
Success is the discipline put in - being there every morning for practice regardless of feelings or desire. This demonstrates loving what you do and wanting to be successful. This consistent showing up since a young age explains the ability to hold trophies.
Loving something doesn't mean always liking it. Days when you don't want to go exist and are normal. These moments represent opportunities for breakthrough rather than reasons to change or quit. Every relationship has imperfect times that must be worked through.
Three years ago, double-faulting issues and serve problems nearly led to quitting despite trying everything including psychology and different treatments. Hiring a biomechanics expert helped understand details and led to first Grand Slam win after staying strong through the challenge.
Universe or God sends challenges because they can be handled and for a reason. Everything happens for a reason, and tough challenges reveal why they occurred. These moments build confidence and courage through overcoming.
Confidence is built step by step through waking up early, showing up when you don't want to, and taking small steps rather than being defined by winning trophies or current performance.
Opening up created pathways for more discussions and helped athletes be seen as more than stone cold. Some embarrassment exists about going about things on a whim without fully thinking through, but the vulnerability was valuable.
Father wanted to train following the Richard Williams blueprint with the Williams sisters. Living that blueprint meant eight hours daily on court with father and sister. It became normalized as life, creating dedication with no choice but to succeed.
Dreams of playing Serena in first Grand Slam final made winning feel like a dream come true, but circumstances weren't ideal with questions about the victory's legitimacy. The need to constantly prove people wrong created a strange mixture of emotions.
For a long time, the first Grand Slam win wasn't processed due to keeping head down and working hard. The introduction to non-tennis fans was difficult with no media training adequate for the situation. Reading comments about not deserving the win or winning unfairly was painful.
Becoming a mother changed life significantly, creating more patience and a carefree attitude toward things that used to bother or be held onto. The whole identity as a tennis player valuing life based on wins and losses shifted to recognizing there's so much more to life and ability to give to another person.
The speaker describes no longer feeling that their life is over if they lose a tennis match, recognizing how natural it is to place all self-worth and self-esteem into one's craft when working extremely hard at it. The conversation explores how everything becomes centered around the sport - the way people speak to them, introduce them, and how every conversation revolves around tennis. The question of how to detach from being ranked number one and disconnect from such a strong identity is examined.
The speaker explains that detaching from their tennis identity has been a series of learning events rather than specific named moments. They mention waking up one day and having realizations click into place. Having people who care about them has reinforced the idea that tennis isn't the main factor of their life, though it has helped them reach positions like sitting in interviews. The balance between staying competitive while remaining content is discussed, noting the danger of competitiveness becoming constant comparison.
The speaker admits to spending most of the year chasing their former shadow, but now believes this isn't the way to go. They describe being a more beautiful, more mature version of their former self, making constant comparison a disservice. There's beauty in stepping into the present and looking toward the future rather than comparing to an old version. The focus has shifted to being excited about what they could become rather than what they were.
While winning as many trophies as possible would be great, the vision that comes to mind involves being happy to learn more, meet new people, learn from them, and learn more about themselves. The conversation addresses the difficulty of people telling others what to do without understanding their circumstances, and the snapback culture the speaker has experienced.
The speaker describes their personality as very honest and straightforward, which has gotten them in trouble. In press conferences, they see people on the other side of the table as humans, noting that the line blurred when they became more known and more people entered press conferences. They felt people weren't treating them like a human but rather asking questions to get oneliners or article grabs. This led to becoming more closed off and fearful.
The day one accepts that they can't avoid a thought, even if it's not peaceful, is when they find peace because they realize they can't keep resisting it. The speaker finds that trying to avoid a thought makes it much stronger. They meditate with ocean noises or rain sounds, finding water has a powerful effect, and welcome thoughts rather than pushing them away, trying to figure out why they're coming in abundance.
The speaker began meditating before their first US Open win, noticing they enjoyed rainy days and wondering what caused that peace. Grand slams, particularly first rounds, were stressful, so they started listening to rain noises the night before matches. They continue this practice with an app that includes brain waves alongside water noises, listening every night. The speaker mentions previously living in Florida where random rainstorms were fun but chaotic for practice.
The speaker's childhood goal was to make their mother stop working, as they rarely saw her except at dinner time. Achieving this was a very joyful day but also difficult because they immediately felt lost and had to set a new goal. They struggled with the immediate race to set a new standard for themselves. The conversation notes how goals about service or helping others carry deeper meaning than simply winning something.
The speaker hasn't found a new goal that feels as deeply rooted as retiring their mother. Most of their childhood centered on seeing their mother more often, and once accomplished, goals shifted to winning, making history, or being the first Asian number one. These goals are meaningful but acknowledged as somewhat shallower. Current meaningful goals include wanting their daughter to reach an age where she can see them play and understand what's happening.
Before having her daughter, the speaker said they definitely wouldn't want her to play tennis, but now if she's interested in the sport, they'd want her to learn. Their daughter has a racket that she loves to swing around.
The speaker describes experiencing a lot of shame during the French Open break, feeling embarrassed and ashamed for going against everything an athlete stood for - the fake it till you make it mentality and not showing cracks in armor. They felt very alone as tennis is a solo sport and they don't have the most friends on tour. After pulling out of the French Open, they flew back to LA and stayed in their house for a week or two, using Instacart and Uber Eats because they didn't want to see the outside world.
Going to the Olympics after the French Open break changed the speaker's mindset significantly because many athletes thanked them. They felt shock because they didn't know they were helping anyone, and had gone into the Olympics thinking people would consider them the worst athlete of all time. The shift from feeling very alone to not feeling alone at all came from receiving nice messages from female athletes and other tennis players.
The emotions felt so heavy that the speaker couldn't recreate the exact emotions leading to their decision. They had won the US Open and Australian Open and were trying to win the French as well. Despite not having the best clay record historically, press constantly asked about it. They weren't doing amazing but weren't doing terrible either, yet felt so stressed going into the tournament that they didn't want to answer questions about it anymore. The breaking point came when they said they weren't going to do media, which blew up everywhere and became a big deal, with focus shifting from tennis to why they weren't doing press.
Having the courage to take a break when fearing being forgotten is one of the most courageous acts. The speaker feels this process was sped up by life events. They've won four grand slams, been fortunate to light the Olympic torch, and accomplished more than they thought they would. Having played tennis since age three, that's the only identity they knew, and they needed the break to figure out who they were as a person. They now hope and think they know who they are as a person, able to stand tall, be confident, and be proud of themselves.
Society defines people by what they do, with the question "what do you do?" becoming how people introduce themselves. Last names historically became about careers - baker, blacksmith - because they were occupations. The speaker finds it remarkable to go beyond career-defined worth at such a young age.
Djokovic dedicated significant time and attention to internal work from early in his career. He was surrounded by people who directed him toward self-care, a holistic approach, and a multidisciplinary approach to preparation, prevention, and recovery - physical, mental, and emotional. At a young age, he didn't fully understand this but trusted his "tennis mother" who passed away 13 years ago. She introduced this holistic concept when he was 9 or 10 years old, training with her two or three times a week individually plus group sessions.
Djokovic's tennis mother educated him off the court as well, taking him to her house at least twice per week to watch tapes of great male and female tennis players. This is where his impersonations started - he tried to adapt all the great things he could see, having a photogenic memory and being very visual. She had him listen to classical music almost daily while writing in his journal, preparing for bed, or any time, particularly those times. They would look at tapes, listen to music, read poetry, and do visualization practice.
The visualization practice was presented simply to a 10-year-old boy: close your eyes and think about how you want to play tennis and when you're happiest. Djokovic is eternally grateful for her instilling this in him and teaching him how to see life, understanding that tennis is not just an individual sport where you can't be replaced if something goes wrong. It requires more responsibility to prepare for battles internally and externally. Tennis taught him it's not only about hitting a ball over the net and counting score, but can be used as a platform to evolve into a better human being.
As Djokovic grew older and more mature, he understood the importance of these practices and expanded on each topic. He started going into yoga and movement, embracing Christianity while remaining open to learning from other religions and spirituality as a whole. Being curious by nature, he always looked for new ways to improve himself and his life, lucky to have space from his parents for this self-discovery through self-care through tennis.
Djokovic still plays professional tennis and experiences his worst and best self on the court. He acknowledges that despite immersing himself in spirituality, holistic approaches, and mental health since age 10, he's still surprising himself by how much he needs to work on these areas. He thought mastering these practices for over 20 years would guarantee he'd always find a way, but has had to accept that what he's learned isn't necessarily a guarantee that it'll always work in particular times and circumstances.
Djokovic feels he has achieved everything and more as a tennis player, yet still wants to do more. Part of this comes from a good place - purpose, inspiration, motivation, love for the sport, passion to make people happy when they watch him, and inspiring younger generations. However, he has also identified a feeling of not being enough that goes back to his very beginning and his relationship with his father - not doing enough, not being good enough. This battle still affects him emotionally, with people asking what more he wants when he's achieved everything.
Djokovic wants to keep going as long as he has the capacity to compete for the biggest titles, partly to test his limits mentally and physically. When he was breaking through into professional tennis, reaching 30 meant counting days to retirement, but the transcript cuts off mid-sentence at this point.
Even though there were some exceptions like Jimmy Connors, the legend of our game, he played semi-finals or finals of US Open when he was 40 and was still dominating the tour. There were very few exceptions. Nowadays it's different because the care for the body has improved so much. Now not only top 10 or 15 guys or girls on the tour have multiple people in their squad to take care of them. Top 50 people are taking care of them. It's due to the improvement of conditions for the players and earning more across the board, which allows hiring more people to take care of your body.
There's a kind of curiosity about how far one can go. At 38 years old, the question is how long can personal limits be pushed. The feeling is that there are no limits, and that limits are normally constructs in our mind. There's admiration for people like Brian Johnson who dedicated his entire life to getting data and understanding the best conditions for the longest living life possible. As a professional athlete, the care for body and mind and the devotion to daily habits is tough because when you want to change a certain habit, science says it takes at least 21 days for the brain to start growing new neurons that are reprogramming.
If you don't have the right environment, changing habits will be very challenging. The environment is the one that can be very stimulative, really supportive, or pulling you down. It's super important because even though we encourage ourselves to be independent in terms of what we do, what we eat, how we sleep, and how we lead our lives, we are social beings. We are very tribal beings, and even if it's the smallest community, we still want to belong to that community and want this community to support us. Even if it's one person or two, it's super important because making tough choices is challenging when society leads life in a way that doesn't coincide with your choices.
Living in a big city and deciding to go through a transformational journey on a daily basis while being exposed to something contrary to what you're trying to achieve is really hard. There's a need for reinventing yourself constantly. Having a great foundation and achieving incredible things, the dream was becoming number one in the world and becoming a Wimbledon champion. That dream was achieved within two days in 2011, winning Wimbledon and becoming number one in the world in front of family and the president of Serbia, with a welcoming of hundreds of thousands of people.
Once in a lifetime experiences like that feel like flying to the moon, an out of body experience. Then there was a need to set new goals, and at 23-24 years old in 2011, the goals became winning multiple slams, winning all slams at once, winning gold medal for the country, and making history. Goal oriented mind is super important in sports, business, or anything really. Clarity is essential to have peace of mind and a calm heart, knowing exactly the strategy to implement to achieve short-term and long-term goals.
Surrounding yourself with people who support you but also people who tell you what you don't want to hear, giving constructive criticism or non-constructive criticism that puts you down, is part of the journey. It's also learning how to get up like a phoenix and rise, developing thick skin. It's a constant process, not fully satisfied because there's always a feeling that more can be done, but also being happy and proud.
Tennis has the longest season of all sports, starting in January and ending almost at the end of November. Being selective with tournaments, not playing as much, focusing on the big ones, and trying to incorporate other things inside the career to expand the platform and use voice for other things than just the tennis court.
Anyone who goes off to do something successful externally was channeling some sort of internal inadequacy or feeling of not being enough. Using it as the right fuel can serve as a great motivating factor, pushing to extract the most amount of necessary energy on a daily basis to achieve goals and live dreams.
It started as something inevitable as part of the environment, with upbringing involving several wars, sanctions, embargo, and poverty. As the oldest of three brothers, there was forced early maturation, particularly at age 11-12 during the bombing and war. One of the most impactful moments was when father brought 10 Deutsch marks, equivalent to $10, saying this is all we got for our family of five living in a super small apartment.
At 12 years old, the realization hit that means had to be taken into hands, at least to support mother from some of the burden of taking care of younger brothers. Not having success was not an option - it was a matter of existence, survival of the family. Over the years, this feeling has transformed into different forms.
The relationship with father often involved lack of patience because everyone saw the talent, coming from Serbia that had no tennis tradition, no tennis culture. Choosing the most difficult sport for parents during the most difficult time for the nation and family. Often wouldn't travel because there was no money, and the tennis federation didn't have money to support. Father had to go and beg, borrowing money from criminals during the '90s.
At 15 years old, going to the United States to play big junior events like Prince Cup and Orange Ball, hoping to get sponsorship or recruited by big agencies like IMG. Father asked for $5,000 from criminal people because banks wouldn't give it. The interest rate was 15%, but because of the rush, it became 25%. The stress of people chasing him, shootings in the capital town, to allow the family to live and protect them and allow the tennis dream to happen.
Success achieved is not only due to father, parents, or self, but also divine higher force. There's belief in intervention from higher forces in power that help in the most difficult moments. Being a man of faith who believes in God and higher spiritual force that intervenes if you open your heart, pray, and believe. Feeling it on personal skin, not knowing how certain matches were won, like the 2019 Wimbledon final against Roger Federer where match points were saved despite not playing well.
The point of connection or practice with higher power involves consistent practice including prayer work, mindfulness, meditation, conscious breathing, visualization, presence, and NLP techniques. Over the years, developing a personal formula that changes dependent on the feeling, whether on court, at home, or wherever. Trying to do it when nobody's watching, sometimes verbalizing things, sometimes writing things down, sometimes internalizing.
Losing matches feels as hard as before, sometimes taking an hour, half a day, a day, or a week to go over the loss. Right after the match, wanting to be left alone, going through the process without chitchat or small talk trying to lift spirits. Needing to isolate, go to room, go outside, walk, blow some steam out. Kids have permission to come into the space, but needing time before being ready to talk and socialize.
Solitude is not necessarily bad, and there's a need to learn how to embrace being in solitude and enjoy being by ourselves. It has to be balanced and optimal, creating time for ourselves because being bored is good.
The worst injury was elbow surgery in 2017 after having the injury for a year and a half. Not normally drinking anti-inflammatories or liking cortisone shots because they mask the problem. Playing under these pills every single match for a year, to the point of not feeling pain anymore, but then feeling pain even with full dose, which was the sign to operate.
Making a promise not to operate throughout the career, feeling like letting oneself down, crying for days after accepting to do surgery. The surgery was done very well. Also had arthroscopic intervention on the knee last year during a match at Roland Garros in the fourth round, winning in five sets after four and a half hours.
Winning set and a half comfortably in the last 16 round when feeling a click in the knee. Could not stand on the leg, playing through the pain. Inviting physio and doctor, feeling pain when touched where the meniscus is. Wanting to give it a shot, asking for strongest painkillers available because it was full stadium and wanting to try. Pain went down after 30 minutes, won the match, and finished with pretty good feeling.
MRI showed ruptured meniscus, had to be operated. Pulled out of the tournament with Wimbledon coming up in three weeks. Team said four to six weeks recovery, telling not to even think about playing Wimbledon. The physio said it's out of the question. Understanding what they were saying but asking to see how it goes in the next two weeks for mental sanity, being on crutches at that point.
Dedicating so much time in a day to recover, making it a task to prove even the closest people in team and family wrong. It was really a mission, recovered and played finals at Wimbledon, losing last year, then a week after that came to Paris and played Olympics and won gold medal. The best period of the 2024 season was post-surgery because something clicked when the physio triggered the challenge.
Needing a challenge in this phase of career to motivate and keep going. Athletes at the highest level after so long need to feel their challenge, need to feel they're playing a game. Michael Jordan in his last dance talked about picking someone and selecting him as an enemy even if nobody in the crowds was talking crap, needing to create that enemy inside the head to get going.
Having quite an experience with tennis crowds over the years, oftentimes when playing against Nadal and Federer, most of the stadium would be against. It was challenging but part of why mental toughness is what it is, playing most matches and big matches in hostile environments, having to find a way to win and use that energy as fuel rather than having it wear down.
Injury is the biggest enemy or opponent of an athlete because you can't do your job, can't play your sport if injured. This proves the point of self-care importance and how significantly it has to be addressed in daily life as an individual athlete. Hostile environment is not ideal, always wanting to play where you're celebrated and cheered for, but learning to thrive in hostile environments, similar to what Kobe and LeBron did.
Using hostile environment as fuel to prove somebody wrong requires mental work to transform or transmute that energy. Years ago after playing Federer in one of the Wimbledon finals where they would cheer Roger all the time, managing to convince oneself especially in the second part of the match that they were cheering Novak instead.
The speaker recalls playing Federer in a Wimbledon final and experiencing their mind playing games during the match. Rather than allowing this mental interference, they actively reframed the crowd's support. While others interpreted the crowd chanting "Roger," the speaker convinced themselves they were hearing "Novak" instead, transforming what could have been negative energy into their own source of motivation and power.
The speaker emphasizes that this mental reframing is possible but requires deliberate work and self-conviction. The key is creating a different reality from what is actually happening around you, essentially constructing your own mental framework that serves your performance rather than being dictated by external circumstances.
"They're saying Roger, they're saying no, but I was like, no, no, no. They're saying Novak Novak, Novac, Novc. So, I was using that as my own force and my own fuel."
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