Boris Becker: I have nothing but praise for Novak Djokovic
Former world no. 1 Boris Becker commented on his co-operation with Novak Djokovic that lasted from 2014 to 2016, in an interview. The German said: "Great human being, an exceptional player. We had three wonderful years, but every player-coach relationship ultimately ends for a number of reasons. Ours was a mutual decision which was realized that we had to go different ways, but I have nothing but praise for him."
Becker also reflected on his Boom Boom nickname: "Tennis has changed over the years, I am flattered that my nickname is Boom Boom because it represents a lot of power. It was actually given to me by an Indian player called Vijay Amritraj many years ago. You have some powerful players today but they have different nicknames."
The 51-year-old spoke about the keys to be a good coach: "It starts with the knowledge for tennis, with the passion, a true love affair for a long time. I think once you have been a successful player you need a little bit of maturity and age to understand the young players better, that's the advantage now but it always needs an open-minded player to listen to any coach and a credit to Novak that he was able to add a very successful career already, he was open for something new otherwise he would have not called me."
Becker also commented on how it felt to "face" Stefan Edberg as a coach in 2014 and 2015 when the Swede was working with Roger Federer: "It was interesting when Roger and Novak were playing in the Wimbledon finals and Boris and Stefan were in player's box so that was a unique situation. Having said that I have had a great rivalry with John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe and at the end with Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi so I was fortunate enough to play with some of the greatest players of all time, and all of these players understand a lot of tennis and I am sure all of these players would be good coaches as well."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2UXrJG9
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