“Things weren’t going well since July, I was not in favour” Ex-coach Marian Vajda hints at rift as the reason for the split with Novak Djokovic
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Marian Vajda and Novak Djokovic
World No. 2 Novak Djokovic shocked the world this week when he announced his separation from coach Marian Vajda having spent 15 years together. Vajda had played a massive role in shaping Novak as one of the greatest players ever to grace the court and had seen him grow from a rookie teenager to an all-time great.
While both the player and coach have said that the decision to split up was through mutual co-operation and posted heartful messages for each other, the Slovakian has finally hinted towards what was the reason that led to the two decide that it was time to look for new avenues and end a very successful pairing that saw Novak Djokovic win 85 of his 86 career titles.
“Things hadn’t been going very well since July. Novak had run out of steam at the US Open after losing a lot of strength at the Olympics. I was against participating in the Games, the deadlines were too tight, the preparation time too short and the mental and physical effort too great. I understood that his objective was of course to give a gold medal to Serbia,” said Vajda in his interview with media outlet Sport.sk.
Looking into Marian Vajda’s comments about Novak Djokovic
After winning the 2021 Wimbledon Championships on 11th July, Djokovic had won three consecutive Slams in the season and had joined Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on 20 Grand Slam titles having started the season with 17 to his name. Immediately after Wimbledon, the focus shifted to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that were set to begin in the final week of July as the Olympic Games were not held in 2020 due to the Pandemic.
Djokovic went to the Olympics in his quest for his maiden Gold medal at the Games and become just 3rd man to win all majors and a singles Olympic Gold joining Nadal and Andre Agassi. However, the Serbian lost in the Bronze medal match in the singles and had to forfeit the mixed doubles bronze medal match due to fatigue and an injury in the shoulder that he had been carrying since Wimbledon.
As a result of his week in Tokyo, Novak did not feature on the Tour throughout August and returned to action directly at the 2021 US Open where he was looking to win all 4 majors in a calendar year and also become the first man to 21 majors. However, he lost in the finals to Daniil Medvedev in straight-sets in what was not a standard Novak performance who was visibly tired even before the 3rd set began.
Vajda, knowing that this could become an obstacle for the Serbian’s success on the Tour as he won only the 2021 Paris Masters and despite finishing as the World No. 1 for a 7th year, a record in itself, he lost in the semi-finals of the 2021 ATP Finals and could not guide Serbia to a Davis Cup title later in the year. While Vajda appeared to have expressed his concern, Novak’s ambition saw him try for all possible titles which did not sit well with the Slovakian and might be the reason why the two have parted ways.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)