“Tennis is fickle and sensitive” – Boris Becker

The former World Number one German tennis player, Boris Becker was coaching Novak Djokovic from 2013 to 2016. Their team was one of thriving player-coach teams in tennis and the Serbian, Djokovic achieved his career milestone by having Becker in his box. Collectively the duo embraced six Grand Slams, two ATP World Tour Finals titles and 13 Masters titles. In addition to that, Djokovic attained his ‘Nole Slam’ under Becker’s tutelage. However, the Serbian-German pair of tennis parted ways after three years of Djokovic’s dominance on the men’s tour.

Even after, Djokovic’s recent nonpareil achievement on the men’s tour, he refuses to settle down. Seven Australian Open titles to name his a splendid fulfilment in itself, but the World Number one tennis player looks forward to outshining the major tallies for his longtime rivals, namely, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. The 15-time major champion, Novak Djokovic and his former coach Becker met at the  Laureus Sports Awards. Becker opened up about the Serbian’s future on the ATP tour. “One of the misfortunes of playing in an era with Federer and Nadal is you can’t really compare yourself to them,” Boris Becker said. “Normally, after 15 Grand Slams and seven Australian Open titles, you would say ‘wow’. It is wow but the next question is ‘will Novak ever break Federer’s record?”

The six-time Grand Slam champion, Boris Becker mentioned about Djokovic’s probabilities of edging closer to Federer’s feats. “The short answer is that there is a possibility but a lot of things have to happen. Yes, he won the last three majors but before that, he had a two-year dry spot”. Becker seems optimistic about Novak Djokovic getting there.“Tennis is fickle and sensitive. A lot of things have to be right in your personal and private life. For Novak, it is perfect at the moment. Therefore he is on his way (to be nearby Federer’s ventures) and hopefully nothing happens in the meantime. Yes and no, because he has a champion’s mindset and that is something you never lose.”

Becker further elucidated and justified rationally about Djokovic touching Federer’s highness. “He has his work ethic back, as well as his discipline, his desire and his love for the game, so, it was a question of time when he is going to win again. When he is on, he is very very good. And he is still young enough, younger than Nadal. There is an open window for him in the next two years to add to his trophy collection. When Federer won his 20th, nobody thought anyone could even come close. Now you have two guys (namely, Rafa and Novak). Every Grand Slam is witnessing history.”