Djokovic To Work With Agassi At Roland Garros
Andre Agassi will be working with Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros, the Serbian revealed in the aftermath of his defeat to Alexander Zverev on Sunday in the final of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
Djokovic confirmed that the pair have been in contact for the past couple of weeks, speaking before every match, and Agassi is now set to join the Belgrade native in Paris for his Roland Garros title defence.
“We are both excited to work together and see where it takes us,” said Djokovic. “We don't have any long-term commitment. It's just us trying to get to know each other in Paris a little bit. He will not stay the whole tournament. He's going to stay only to a certain time, and then we'll see after that what's going to happen. We'll see what the future brings.”
Just ahead of the Mutua Madrid Open earlier this month, Djokovic parted ways with his long-time coach Marian Vajda, having also split with ‘super coach’ Boris Becker at the end of 2016. The World No. 2 explained that it is both for Agassi’s tennis and life experience that he sought out the eight-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1.
“Andre is someone that I have tremendous respect for as a person and as a player,” said Djokovic. “He has been through everything that I'm going through. On the court he understands the game amazingly well. I am enjoying every conversation that I have with him.
“But also, on the other hand, he's someone that nurtures the family values, philanthropy work. He's a very humble man, is very educated. He's a person that can contribute to my life on and off the court a lot. I'm very excited to see what is ahead of us. It's only a couple weeks that we are in communication, but I already feel like we are very kind of close to each other and creating this nice vibe.
“He has been away from the tour for the past 10, 15 years, but speaking with him, he's been definitely following closely all the big matches, especially on the TV. So he knows players, he knows everyone that I was playing against in the past couple of weeks, so we talked before every match, more or less.
“It was obviously his call whether or not he wanted to take that step and try to work with me. He has accepted it, and I'm very grateful for that.”
Djokovic had been looking to win his 31st ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown at the Foro Italico, following a ruthless dismissal of Dominic Thiem the night before in the Italian capital. But the four-time former Rome champion came up against an inspired performance from #NextGenATP star Zverev, who clinched his first ‘Big Title’ in emphatic style with a straight-sets win.
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“I congratulate Sascha for his first Masters,” said Djokovic. “He deserved it. He played very good. His backhand was very fast and solid. Not many errors at all and big serve. It was a perfect performance from his side.
“On the other hand, he didn't get much from my side. I played very poorly today. Just couldn't find any rhythm. The conditions were completely different. I haven't played a day match for three, four days already. Just a lot of wind and just very fast and bouncing. I just couldn't find the proper rhythm, proper positioning on the court.
“He used it. I made a lot of unforced errors,” acknowledged the Serbian. “I started the match very poorly. Lost the break. Of course, against a big server like that, he gets a lot of confidence in his game. Basically from the beginning, it wasn't the right match for me.
“I played definitely great all week up to today, and especially last night's performance was amazing. I enjoyed it very much. I will try to take those positives obviously now coming off the court. I’m disappointed with the way I played, especially after the match yesterday, but it is what it is. I have to deal with it.”