Novak Djokovic‘s documentary titled “Novak Djokovic: The Wolf in Winter” will hit Amazon Prime Video on August 20. However, just days before the release, Emmy Award winner Jason Hehir, who directed the documentary, expressed his views on the Serb’s 202o COVID controversy.

“I wasn’t a tennis junkie,” he said during a discussion on Andy Roddick’s Served podcast. “Candidly, at that point, I knew of him (Djokovic) because of the deportation scandal and the vaccine stuff, which I disagreed with him on and still do. So, I didn’t have a favorable image of him in my head because that was still kind of in the news. When you brought up Novak, you brought that up, and that’s going to follow him around for a while. We deal with that for a while in the documentary as well.”

Djokovic notably refrained from get vaccinated despite being given many reminders. As a result, he was blocked from competing at the 2022 Australian Open and was expelled from the country. And Before making his documentary, that was pretty much all Hehir knew about the situation.

However, both Djokovic and Hehir have developed a close friendship while making the documentary. The American director, who is famous for doing projects on sports, feels he has worked very hard, especially for this documentary.

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“I have an affection for him because I would call him my friend now. So, I want him to win because I want my friend to accomplish something that is deeply meaningful for him…This project has taken me longer than ‘The Last Dance’ took me. This project is 92 minutes long. The Last Dance was 10 hours, and this project took me longer from start to finish than The Last Dance did,” he added.

“The Last Dance” is one of Hehir’s most recognizable projects. It followed the story of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls’ dominance in the NBA during the 1990s. It won the Primetime Emmy in 2020 for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. Now Hehir can hope for another nomination as the Djokovic documentary looks very promising on paper.

While Djokovic certainly will be excited for the release of his documentary, he has had a forgettable performance on the court. The 39-year-old recently suffered a shocking 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Thiago Agustin Tirante in the Round of 64 at the Cincinnati Masters.

Djokovic is heading in to the US Open with barely any practice on hard courts. Having played just one match in the swing, question remains if he will be able to make a deep run in the final major of the season.