12-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic’s former coach Boris Becker believes the Serb isn’t influenced by current World No. 1 Roger Federer and reigning French Open champion Rafael Nadal.
Becker, a former World No. 1 and three-time Wimbledon champion, coached Djokovic from 2014 to 2016, guiding him to six Major titles. Djokovic, who was troubled by an elbow injury for the past couple of years, has spent the majority of the past 15 months on the sidelines and returned to action in Indian Wells last week.
After undergoing surgery to get rid of the pain in his right elbow, Djokovic’s service arm, the Monte Carlo resident is expected to regain his touch sooner than later. He can then mount a challenge to Nadal and Federer’s Grand Slam tally. While Federer has 20 Grand Slam titles to his name, Rafa has 16.
However, Becker reckons Djokovic isn’t motivated by the idea of eclipsing the most celebrated pair in world tennis.
“I don’t think so,” Becker told Express Sport.
“Djokovic won 12 Slams and hopefully more to come, now that he is injury free; he is only 30-year-old, not so much.
“He has been challenged by Federer and Nadal, and they have been challenged by him (too).
“It was an amazing time to have three champions in the same moment.
“There are followers’ group now: Nadal’s fans, Djokovic’s fans, Federer’s fans.
“When Federer started winning we didn’t have social media, and yet he is the most popular player of all time.”
On the other hand, Djokovic revealed he is pain-free tennis for the first time in the last two years.
“I actually started playing pain-free in the last two days. It’s quite refreshing because everything else had pain involved,” Djokovic said.
“The last few days have been first in a long, long time that I could actually be focused on the game rather than have something in my mind and be worried about whether I am going to have pain or not.”
“Actually it’s the first time in years (he has been injury free).”
