Commentary box

Djokovic’s spring clean

Novak Djokovic’s career path “took another bizarre twist” last week, says Peter Bodo on ESPN. The world No. 2 tennis player unexpectedly split from his coach, his fitness coach and his physiotherapist, little more than five months after sacking “supercoach” Boris Becker. Why all these changes? Djokovic hasn’t been himself since July, when he apparently became affected by “questions surrounding his personal life”. The Serb has won just one tournament in 2017, and “hasn’t looked like his impregnable self in his losses”. He clearly thinks a change of personnel will help him – but who knows whether this decision was “the result of great clarity or profound confusion”. Time will tell.

Erasing records

The latest bold new plan to clean up athletics is “utter nonsense”, says Matt Lawton in the Daily Mail. Under the proposal, which could be approved by the world’s governing body as early as July, world and European records will be considered valid only if the blood or urine sample taken after the performance remains available for retesting. And since the athletic authorities only started storing samples in 2005, any record set before then will instantly be erased. Where’s the sense in that? The system will only serve to punish innocent athletes, while doing nothing to reassure fans that today’s competitors are clean. The whole thing is a “charade”.