Djokovic confirms split with Becker
BERLIN: World number two Novak Djokovic confirmed on Tuesday he has split from his coach Boris Becker after three years working together.
“Boris Becker and I have jointly decided to end our cooperation,” Djokovic, who won this year’s Australian and French Open titles, wrote on his official Facebook page.
The Serb has won 12 Grand Slam titles in his career — six while working with Germany’s Becker — twice in Australia (2015, 2016) and Wimbledon (2014, 2015) and the French (2016) and US Open (2016) once.
“The goals we set when we started working together have been completely fulfilled, and I want to thank him for the cooperation, teamwork, dedication and commitment,” said the 29-year-old Djokovic.
“On the other hand, my professional plans are now directed primarily to maintain a good level of play, and also to make a good schedule and new goals for the next season.
VETTEL NOT IN FRAY Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel will not replace Rosberg at Mercedes, Toto Wolff told dpa in an interview on Tuesday.
When asked about Vettel’s recent public reference to a contract that he has with Ferrari for 2017, Wolff told dpa, “Yes, we respect the contracts which drivers have at other teams. We also wouldn’t want our drivers to look around for the next-best opportunities.”
“Contracts exist for these kinds of situations and we respect that,” Wolff said.
However, Mercedes team boss said he would “not rule out” coming to an agreement with another team for a driver.
Wolff also added that he would like to see Pascal Wehrlein, who is also being touted as a potential successor for Rosberg, remain on a smaller team for the time being.
“If I had to make a Christmas wishlist, then I would wish for him to stay in a midtier team for another year or two.”
“But my wishlist for this year didn’t work out, so in that respect we have to find a good compromise and maybe we need to make a bold decision, like Nico [Rosberg] did,” Wolff said.
“In this regard I will make all future decisions.”
Becker, now 49 and who won six Grand Slams himself, reacted on Twitter by posting a photo of himself and Djokovic celebrating this year’s French Open title, saying: “Thank U ! We had the time of our life ...#teamdjokovic.”
After his Paris triumph in June, Djokovic had a complicated second half of the season, losing the world number one ranking he had held for 122 weeks from July 7, 2014 to Britain’s Andy Murray in November.
Djokovic also lost his Wimbledon and US Open titles and was eliminated in the first round of the Rio Olympics by eventual champion Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina.
Djokovic had made a change to his coaching team towards the end of the 2016 season with Spaniard Pepe Imaz joining him for the Paris Masters, where the record four-time champion fell in the quarterfinals, and the World Tour Finals in London where he lost to Murray.