It may be currently fashionable to employ previous grand slam winners as coaches; but needless to say the announcement recently made by Novak Djokovic that the six-time Grand Slam winner Boris Becker will join his team as head coach, has surprised a fair few. It even surprised Becker himself, who admitted that he ‘didn’t expect the phone call.’
People have questioned what Boris Becker could possibly bring to Novak’s game. The Serb’s now ex-head coach, Marian Vajda, who has worked alongside him since 2006, humbly declared he realised that ‘Novak needed a new head coach in order for him to continue improving certain parts of the game.’ Note that specific parts of the game have not been mentioned by anyone. It’s not as if Djokovic needs to work on his mental strength, but maybe Boris can give him serving tips. Although with 476 aces this season, I am not sure he needs them…
It’s not anything new for the Serb to have two coaches; Todd Martin’s contribution to the Djokovic clan was cut short in 2010, after just a few months of collaboration. The Joker had declared that problems were always going to arise when you had two coaches that didn’t really understand each other – apparently Djokovic hasn’t really learnt the lesson. But this new partnership promises to be different, with Vajda wanting to spend more time with his family and therefore acting more as ‘sous coach’, whilst Becker will enjoy soaking up the media attention. Djokovic also knows what he’s doing, if he doesn’t like what Becker has to say, he has shown that he won’t hesitate to go back to his one coach arrangement. It’s not as if that’s worked too badly for him in the past.
I can understand that after a ‘disappointing’ year of 2013, Djokovic feels he needs a change, or a ‘fresh approach’ as he put himself; but following his beautiful end to the season, is a change really that necessary?
Personally, I find this move a little too risky, although I really hope to be proven wrong.
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