Boris Becker On Coaching Split: Djokovic Wasn’t Practicing As Much As He Should Have Been [Video]
24 hours after parting ways with Novak Djokovic, Boris Becker revealed to Sky Sports some of what led to the split, which he called “mutual”.
“I think the last six months have been challenging on many levels. Our hands were tied a little bit because we couldn’t do the work we wanted to do,” Becker said. “He didn’t spend as much time on the practice court in the last six months as he should have and he knows that.
“Success like this doesn’t happen by pushing a button. Success like this doesn’t just happen by showing up at a tournament. You have to work your bottom off because the opposition does the same.”
Becker said after Djokovic completed the career Slam at the French, Novak wanted to spend more time with his family and less on tennis, something the German found no argument with.
“I don’t know if he had any personal problems based on what I know,” Becker said. “He is happily married. He has got a beautiful son.
“But the profession of a tennis player is probably the most selfish one in sports because it has to be about you and he is the first to say he is a family man so of course his wife and the rest of his family had to take back seats.
“That can’t be forever and I think that is what he meant. I don’t think there were problems. I have met his wife – she is lovely and very, very supportive of her husband.
“But they don’t spend enough time together. I had it too, 20 years ago. It is just the nature of the beast, being a tennis player.”
Becker added that the loss of the No. 1 ranking to Andy Murray will hurt Djokovic, but the Serb will rise up again.
“But he has got to go back to work,” Becker said. “He has to go back to the office and practice these hours and refocus on what made him strong in the first place.”
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