Ahead of his clay court campaign, former world No.1 Novak Djokovic has been training in Marbella along with a familiar figure.
On Sunday Serbian website Sport Klub posted a video of the 12-time grand slam champion in action. Watching from the side of the court was Marian Vajda. A former Slovakian player who was Djokovic’s coach over a 11-year period before departing in 2017.
Djokovic’s session with Vajda comes in the wake of his latest shake-up of his coaching team. In recent weeks he has departed with Andre Agassi and Radek Stepanek. Agassi said in a statement to ESPN that he had ‘disagreements’ with Djokovic, but the Serbian hasn’t commented on that claim.
“The private relationship with Stepanek was and will remain great, and Novak has enjoyed working with him and learning from him.” Djokovic said in a statement.
“He remains grateful and appreciative of all the support he has received from Radek during the last period.”
“The cooperation between Novak and Andre Agassi has also ended.” He later added.
The potential reappointment of Vajda would be a welcomed situation by many. He first joined the team in December 2006 as Djokovic’s principle coach before holding the position jointly with Boris Becker. The two went their own ways last May in what was a ‘mutual agreement.’ There is currently no information to suggest that Djokovic and Vajda will work together once again on a permanent basis.
Djokovic heads into the clay court season in search of a revival in his form. Since returning to the tour from an elbow injury at the start of the year, he has only managed to win back-to-back matches in one out of three tournaments.
Until the conclusion of the French Open, the 30-year-old has a total of 1500 points to defend on the tour. He will return to action at the Monte Carlo Masters. Which will get underway a week on Monday.
Djokovic, who missed the second part of last year due to injury, is currently ranked 13th in the world.