Novak Djokovic says he and his now part-time coach, Marian Vajda, agreed to bring Boris Becker on as a full-time coach because of the German’s championship experience.
“He’s a six-time Grand Slam champion, he won so many trophies in his life, he was a former No. 1, and speaking to Marian in the last few months of the year, we both came to the conclusion that I’m going to need another legendary player that can eventually help me understand better what I need to do in particular situations, especially in the Grand Slam final stages,” Djokovic told Sport360. “To give me that mental edge. He can identify with me because he was in those situations so he knows what I go through, so that’s what one of the biggest reasons he’s on board. So I believe the combination of Boris and Marian will be the winning combination for me and that I will manage to get better and improve my game and this mental strength in the most important tournaments and the most important moments of the match.”
Djokovic said he is not going to make radical changes to his game, but will keep attempting to add net rushing to his attack. During his playing days Becker was a serve-and-volleyer on fast surfaces.
“I won my first and 41st tournaments with Marian and it’s extremely important that he’s part of all these discussions and conversations and analysis of what I need to do on the court to improve and get at least one or two or five per cent better, as much as possible of course,” Djokovic said. “I did work on my net game. I did work on approaching and using the opportunities that I build for myself with my ground strokes, with my baseline play. Because I’m a baseline player but I wanted to stay closer to the line and come to the net and I was doing that really well but that was all the result of the work that I’ve done with Marian and I’m going to try to continue doing the same with Boris.
“We’re not going to make any major changes because I feel like I’m already a complete player. I’m not going to start serving and volleying because I’ve never done that. I’m going to put a mix here and there but my game is going to be the same with certain adjustments with the positioning on the court and that’s more or less what we’re going to do.”