The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Djokovic back and confident
Serbian still picking the brain of Agassi, his new coach.
Back on the court where he completed his career Grand Slam, Novak Djokovic showed no sign of the crisis of confidence that has affected his game since winning the French Open last year.
PARIS — If Novak Djokovic was hoping to take a little pressure and attention off himself after some rough results, he might very well have found the perfect way to do that by adding Andre Agassi as a coaching consultant of sorts for the French Open.
Well, for up to a week of the tournament, anyway.
With Agassi in the stands, generally expressionless during the match and silent afterward, the No. 2-seeded Djokovic was not always at his clean-swinging best while beating Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 on Monday to begin the defense of the title that allowed him to complete a career Grand Slam at Roland Garros a year ago.
“It’s hard to say whether there is significant difference on the court, because it’s only a few days that we are together,” Djokovic said. “So it’s going to take a little bit of time . ... I’m patient and, for us, this is a great way to start off our collaboration and friendship and get to know each other and then see where it takes us.”
On a relatively quiet Day 2, Spain’s Rafael Nadal started his pursuit of a record 10th French Open championship with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Frenchman Benoit Paire.
Other seeded men advancing included No. 5 Milos Raonic, No. 7 Marin Cilic and No. 10 David Goffin, while No. 14 Jack Sock, the top-ranked U.S. man, and No. 31 Gilles Simon — both in Nadal’s section of the draw — lost, along with No. 32 Mischa Zverev.
Defending women’s champion Garbine Muguruza and former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki won in straight sets. However, two seeded American women joined Sock on the way out: No. 19 CoCo Vandeweghe and No. 25 Lauren Davis.
Leave it to the No. 4-seeded Nadal to win relatively simply and then lament a portion of his performance.
“For me,” he said, “it’s important to serve a little bit better than what I did today.”
A year ago, Djokovic worked with Boris Becker when he became the first man in nearly a half-century to win four consecutive majors.
Djokovic made it sound as if Agassi’s role right now is more about offering life advice than tennis tips.
Sunglasses perched atop his shaved pate, leaning forward with his chin resting on his hands and elbows on his knees, Agassi occasionally applauded during the 2½-hour first-round match. Later, Agassi — who counts the 1999 French Open among his eight Grand Slam titles — declined to take questions from a reporter.
Djokovic, for his part, had plenty to say about their partnership, which sounds more like a brief experiment than the start of a long-term arrangement, even if that’s what the Serb insisted he hopes it can become.
“Well, he’s going to stay ... I hope, ‘til the end of this week. Then he has to leave, because he has (something) scheduled ... that he cannot reschedule. So that’s all,” said Djokovic, whose 29 unforced errors were one more than Granollers’ total.
“I’m going to try to use the time spent with him as best as I can, as best as we can. So far, plenty of information, plenty of things to kind of process.”