It was a far from straightforward day at the office for Novak Djokovic at the French Open as new revelations about his collaboration with Andre Agassi emerge.
Facing Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman, Djokovic overcame a patchy display to see off his tiring opponent 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, in the second round. The roller coaster performance was illustrated by the match statistics with 43 winners being overshadowed by 55 unforced errors. It was a sharp contrast to their meet at the 2014 US Open, when Djokovic dropped just a total of seven games in that match.
“I’m glad that I have some positives, of course, to take from today’s match.” Said Djokovic.
“I was mentally still strong and as calm as I could be, even though I was two sets to one down I kept believing I could break his resistance. It was just too many unforced errors from myself.”
Djokovic’s third round experience was a sharp contrast to that of rival Rafael Nadal, who crushed his opponent 6-0, 6-1, 6-0. Still, the current French Open champion is refusing to be disheartened about his title chances. If anything, the world world No.2 is thriving upon the challenges in order to establish what he needs to improve to reclaim his position at the top of the emirates rankings.
“Sometimes you need to be challenged in order for certain things to surface, which maybe are not surfacing if you’re winning comfortably.” He explained.
“That’s gonna happen more as I go deeper in the tournament, because the matches and the opponents are going to get tougher and gonna play against players who are higher ranked and better quality so I’m going to get challenged more.”
The challenges come as Djokovic enters a new phrase in his career. Besides his new clothing partnership with Lacoste, he is seeking advice from former champion Andre Agassi. Although, it is becoming more apparent that their partnership is focusing more of the mental side compared to the physical.
Money is no object
It remains to be seen what the future holds for Djokovic and Agassi. The collaboration may not of even happen if it wasn’t for Agassi’s wife, Steffi Graf, persuading him.
‘I said, ‘Maybe I can help you over the phone? I don’t think you need much, but this is not possible for me with the balance of my life’. Agassi told Eurosport.
‘And then Steffi says, ‘Maybe you’ll enjoy it’. I said, ‘You think?’ I respect her so much. So I said, ‘I’ll go early, since I have to be in Paris any way and I’ll just get to know him’.
Three matches into their experiment, it is clear that Agassi is not taking the same position as Becker. During his interview with Eurosport, it was confirmed that Djokovic is not paying him. This isn’t a ploy of the world No.2 to get free coaching, it is because Agassi doesn’t want it. An honourable stance, but questions loom about how long this will last for.
“I’m not going to get into that, but everything that he said is completely true, so it’s completely his decision.” Djokovic confirmed.
“I don’t have any expectations. I’m just trying to enjoy every possible moment that I have next to him when he’s here with me and when he’s not of course we are in daily contact, calling each other, texting and so forth”
It is likely that beyond Wimbledon the two will continue working together. Djokovic said during his post-match press conference that he hopes the partnership will ‘stay for a long time.’ Meanwhile, Agassi has already confirmed his availability for SW19. Still, there are more questions to be answered before this high profile pairing become a formidable force in tennis.
The next task for the Djokovic camp will occur on Sunday when he faces Albert Ramos in the fourth round.
