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Of him sorting out his future in the sometimes crowded support box of Djokovic, he says: ‘We are in the process but I can’t tell you anything more than that. I couldn’t tell you yes and I couldn’t tell you no.’
‘I thought Novak in the [Saturday evening] semi-final against Nishikori played the way he played in the first six months of the year. That’s how well he can play when everything is in place,’ continues Becker.
‘I couldn’t believe how badly he played on the Sunday given the circumstances. That was probably, under my guidance, the worst match he has played and two weeks on I still don’t know what happened.
‘Given the circumstances Andy must have felt like an old man getting up after that marathon [the three-and-a-half-hour semi-final on Saturday against Milos Raonic], it doesn’t matter how fit you are. I felt we were in a good position to win it.’
By the time they got to the O2 Arena he had three coaches in tow — Becker, his long-time mentor Marian Vajda and Spaniard Pepe Imaz, the coach-cum-spiritual guru who proclaims peace and love.
‘Look, I’m on the inside, I know everything, and I can’t tell you,’ says Becker. ‘I love my player and will protect him and will never say anything about that, so I will have to plead the fifth amendment.’
‘You could understand any sportsman, after consistently winning everything, he gets tired of it for whatever reason. That was the case with Novak after the French Open. He has the right to take time out, pursue other interests, spend more time with his family. People forget the only way you can achieve such success is by being single-minded and selfish and after a few years that becomes a lonely place.
´The dominant player may decide to take a bit of a break. You have other examples: Bjorn Borg retiring at 26, Agassi taking a number of long breaks in his career, myself taking time out. You look at Tiger Woods, or Lionel Messi after the World Cup two years ago. It is the most natural thing for a top athlete.
‘The next six months [post-Paris] you had a different kind of work because of injury and other issues. Our hands were tied a bit. We couldn’t do the work we had done before. We thought we saved the year with the US Open.
‘Novak got injured but then got lucky with the draw and by the second week he played the way he can. Reaching the final there was an unbelievable effort knowing where he was coming from there.’
Becker’s conclusion is, whether he is in the 29-year-old’s support box or not, Djokovic will be galvanised for next season.
‘Because he hadn’t lost in such a long time, to lose the No1 spot and the US Open final hurts and this may be the right signal at the right time, given his age, for him to train harder and be more committed.
‘I’m not saying he is going to win everything again but he is going to be a lot more focused on tennis next year than he was in the second half of this year, I’m convinced.’
Tekst je pisao Dickson, koji je od ATP-a dobio nagradu kao novinar godine (ili sta vec). On je imao tekstova koji se mogu okarakterisati kao neskloni Novaku.
Dobar deo ovog teksta su njegovi utisci i "citanje izmedju redova" sta je BB hteo da kaze, a njegovo proricanje da je ovo kraj BB-NDJ saradnje se moze uzeti i kao wishful thinking. Ono sto je meni zanimljivo je izjava BB da su pregovori i dalje u toku.
Dakle - jos uvek cekamo.