AGASSI OFF TO WINNING START
...but coach won’t see Djokovic finish the job
If Novak Djokovic is going to win the french Open then it will not be under the full guidance of Andre Agassi, who will be leaving well before the final.
The defending champion admitted yesterday that the initial trial with his new mentor will not be lasting that long, despite getting off to a satisfactory start.
Asked after his opening 6-3, 6-4, 6- 2 win over Spaniard Marcel Granollers how long the American legend would be around, Djokovic said: ‘I hope until the end of this week. Then he has to leave, because he has some scheduled things that he cannot reschedule.’
It shows the tentative nature of the arrangement between the pair so we will have to enjoy this fascinating diversion while it lasts.
There was one particularly interesting cameo during the match that saw Djokovic’s ex, Boris Becker, take a walk-on part during Agassi’s debut in the coaching seat.
During the lengthy game at the end of the second set Becker stood about six feet behind his successor, waited for five minutes and then approached Agassi at the changeover to say hello and shake hands.
Today another tennis legend, Ivan Lendl, will take the same seat as the faltering Andy Murray plays his first-round match against Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov.
Agassi sat calmly in the end seat, not as stone-faced as Lendl and occasionally comparing notes with Djokovic’s brother, Marko, sitting alongside. The Serb’s ‘peace and love’ guru, Pepe Imaz, was down the other end. On ITV’s commentary American Jim Courier speculated mischievously about how well the ‘pugilist’ Agassi would get along with the spiritual Spaniard.
Agassi used his right to remain silent afterwards, but his player explained what he was hoping to get from the association. ‘Specifically, it’s not anything that will significantly change my game. I won’t start to play serve and volley,’ said Djokovic. ‘It’s more about the mindset, the approach.
‘I feel the game that I have has got me to where I am for a reason, and he feels that my game is very much at a good place. It’s just a matter of fine-tuning it.’
Djokovic spoke of how much he had enjoyed Agassi’s award-winning autobiography, in which he revealed how far he went off the rails at certain stages and how he had a secret, deep-lying hatred of tennis.
The latter claim needs to be taken with a touch of seasoning, and not just because he has taken the first steps back into the coaching arena.
Shortly before the book came out in 2009 Sportsmail interviewed Steffi Graf, Agassi’s wife, about how big a part tennis still had in their lives.
After explaining that she was preoccupied with other things she said her husband ‘still loves watching tennis and assessing the strategy of matches.’
Agassi’s undoubted tactical acumen should help Djokovic, although this was not a stellar display from the defending champion, who was broken four times by Granollers — a man with only three wins this season.
Murray will today be hoping that his own supercoach can have a rejuvenating effect when he sits in his box for the first time since the shock of his Australian Open fourthround defeat in January.
It is a dangerous match for the world No 1 against a man fresh from the Geneva Open semi-finals.
‘I will have the chances, good chances,’ said Kuznetsov. ‘I prepared pretty good for this tournament. I think I’m ready to play good. If I win I will be a hero.’
Murray, who had serious scares in the opening two rounds a year ago, will play on the main Court Philippe Chatrier, following Britain’s Jo Konta clash with Taipei’s Hsieh Su-wei. Britain’s Kyle Edmund plays Portugal’s Gastao Elias.