Marian Vajda to coach Alex Molcan

When Marian Vajda and Novak Djokovic parted ways the assumption was that Vajda would quit coaching. However, the Slovak had not totally closed the door on returning to the tour. At the time, the 57-year-old told the press that he was open to a return at some stage.

Today, Slovak media RTVS have seemingly broken the news that Vajda is returning already to the tour. The 57-year-old has been seen in Bratislava with Slovakian player Alex Molcan. The 24-year-old is a Top 50 player and the Slovak #1 male singles player.

Molcan has six Challenger and ITF titles, and has been in two ATP singles finals. He lost them both. The first was in Belgrade in 2021, which he lost to Djokovic; the second was in April against David Goffin. The 24-year-old obviously has something that Vajda is looking for.

New Challenge

Vajda said that it would be a very high bar and would need to be a challenge if he were to coach again. Molcan, his fellow countryman, offers that challenge. Bringing the top Slovakian male player through to winning main tour titles is certainly the challenge.

Vajda, though, is certainly up to the task. He took Djokovic to most of the titles the Serbian won, having joined the Djokovic team when the Serb first turned professional until earlier this year. Of course, there was a short period of time when they split before, but came back together again.

As this split is permanent, it left Vajda free to look elsewhere, and see if any younger talent needed his expertise and advice. Molcan has certainly landed a coup in hiring the old coach of former World #1. Can the Slovakian pair have any where near the same success as Djokovic has had? Only time will tell.