Tennis Hall of Famer Boris Becker said that he was first contacted by Novak Djokovic in October during the China Open in Beijing which led to his appointment as the Serbian tennis star’s head coach.
“I was surprised,” said the former world number one in a recent interview. “I didn’t expect that phone call, but I was honored for such a good player to call me and ask for my services. I said: ‘I want to meet you in Monte Carlo [where he has a residence], let’s talk this through and see how much you want it, how much that fire is burning inside you, how much is left and what I can bring to the table.”
“We had a great day and a half in Monte Carlo, we chatted about everything and then we kept in touch over the next couple of weeks. Whenever he played a tournament I was speaking to his agent about some of the things I wanted him to change, some of the strategies I wanted him to change. But we kept it on the down-low because it was pretty big news.”
Becker has never been a full-time coach but had consulted with fellow German players such as Tommy Haas, Florian Mayer and Nicolas Kiefer.
Djokovic wants to further improve his game to keep up with rivals Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, both having defeated him at US Open and Wimbledon finals respectively.
“He had a couple of bad losses this year, in finals and semifinals,” Becker said in an interview with BBC’s Radio 5 Live. “He is such a winner, he wants to win so badly. The fact that Nadal has taken over [the No. 1 ranking] and Murray has moved up a gear, he felt he had been left behind a little bit. I am talking at a really high level here, we’re talking about those five or ten percent that had maybe been missing for whatever reason. He was very impressed with the level of Murray’s relationship [with Lendl] and the comeback of Nadal. He felt he needed someone in his corner who had been there and done it, what he’s trying to do.”
