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Novak Djokovic revealed he gave himself a pep talk in the mirror when his third-round US Open opponent Laszlo Djere earned a surprising two-set lead. “Actually I did. And I’m not lying. I did a pep talk in the mirror and kind of laughed at myself because I was so pissed off, annoyed, and agitated with the result, but I had to force myself to lift myself up, to lift the spirits up a little bit.
I've done it a few times in my career. It worked. A few times it didn't work, but tonight it did and I'm grateful,” Djokovic said in the post-match interview.
Novak Djokovic had a talk with himself in the mirror when he was down 2 sets to 0 against Djere:
“Actually I did.And I’m not lying. 😂 I did a pep talk in the mirror & kind of laughed at myself bc I was so agitated.. I had to force myself to lift myself up” pic.twitter.com/9MPEBMNNp1 — The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) September 2, 2023
Djokovic used his pep-talk technique to win Wimbledon 2022
Djokovic also gave himself a pep-talk when he was down two sets in the face of Jannik Sinner when they were playing for the 2022 Wimbledon title.
Djokovic managed to overturn the match (5-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2). “There is not a lot of time at that point…I have always loved and respected Kobe Bryant a lot, him and his famous mamba mentality. He often spoke about these things – one thing that all sports have in common is that moment in which you have to convince yourself that you can and that you must do better; to stay positive and to dig yourself out of a hole,” Novak Djokovic said.
“That is probably even more important in individual sports. There is a saying in English that goes ‘fake it till you make it’. When I looked at myself in the mirror saying those things, it did seem unnatural, but I knew that those words have their own strength, vibration and that it can pay off," he added.