MY NOVAK IS A TOUGH COOKIE
Coach Becker in awe of street fighter Djokovic
AfTER 18 months of coaching Novak Djokovic, Boris Becker has come to understand the essence of what makes the Wimbledon champion increasingly look like one of the greatest players ever.
‘He’s a tough cookie, I’d call him a street fighter. When the going gets tough, he gets better, when he bleeds a little bit he goes forward,’ said Becker, reflecting on his charge’s latest triumph at the All England Club.
The 47-year-old German was left having to ‘pinch myself’ at being in the champion’s corner 30 years after he first took Wimbledon by storm. He was purring at Djokovic’s ability to lift his game at the crucial juncture of Sunday’s 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Roger federer.
‘The beginning of the third set, that was the moment when both had break points,’ Becker told Wimbledon Live.
‘That’s when matches are decided and Novak feels it, he smells it, understands it, when you have to go all in. It can’t always work but at least you have no regrets afterwards. That’s when he took the match away from Roger.’
Bad ankle or not, Becker was up and down like he had parked himself on an ejector seat, especially during the second tiebreak when the match caught fire.
‘I’ve never seen a tiebreak like this live. I was on top of my seat, my emotions were raw, I was up and down, I couldn’t believe it. The way the set points were played, both guys not holding back, the way they were hitting the ball.’
He also had some interesting observations about what had gone before Sunday’s climax to the tournament, which involved Andy Murray.
‘Wimbledon finals are not won in the semi-final. Roger peaked in the semi, he couldn’t have played better, but I felt that if Novak could hold off the return and get Roger involved with baseline rallies, I thought eventually he’d wear him down.’
Djokovic is now one part of a duo with Serena Williams that has a lock on the game probably not seen since the late Sixties when great Australians Rod Laver and Margaret Court dominated.
In the early hours of yesterday morning their double act extended to reinstating the long defunct tradition of the men’s and women’s champions dancing together at the celebratory dinner, held at the City of London’s Guildhall.
As was evident from the crowd support on Sunday, Djokovic remains admired more than loved by the Centre Court.
YETthe fact is that no other top player would have had the flair or extrovert personality to suggest doing a routine to Night Fever with Williams and re-enact something last seen from Chris Evert and Bjorn Borg in 1976. Djokovic is very much a threedimensional character.
The 28-year-old Serb, back at Wimbledon yesterday looking somewhat drawn, is likely to be in the winner’s circle many times more. Given his record over Murray, federer’s age ( 33), Rafael Nadal’s struggles and that other challengers are maturing only slowly, it is conceivable that he could get close to — or even over- take — the great Swiss’s total of 17 Grand Slam titles. It is strange, for example, that such an outstanding hard court player has only won the US open once. He could surely improve on that.
Djokovic, who has now won nine Slams, gave an honest answer when asked to consider the target of federer’s 17 and Nadal’s 14. ‘I don’t want to say it’s too early to talk about it, it’s probably the right time to talk about it.
‘But I am still far away from that. I know what it takes to win just one Grand Slam. It’s a lot of effort, a lot of things have to come together, so to reach these two guys would be something incredible.
‘I feel like I’m at the peak of my abilities and I want to use that for as long as I can. I’m trying to take care of my body as much as I can and avoid the biggest enemy of any professional athlete, which is injury.
‘I think it will come down to how I feel mentally. How long I can motivate myself to keep going and doing the repetitive things which sometimes are not very pleasant. At the end of the day it pays off and it allows you to be in the position to fight for these trophies.’ JAMES WARD will go into friday’s Davis Cup tie against france boosted by reaching No 89 in the world rankings — the highest of his career.
The 28-year- old has risen 22 places to break into the top 100 for the first time thanks to his Wimbledon second round win over Czech Jiri Vesely.
Ward needed a wild card to play at Wimbledon but will earn an automatic entry into the US open in September if he can maintain his new status.
Slovenian- born Aljaz Bedene, who adopted British nationality in March, has risen to 70 in the rankings after reaching the second round at SW19.