Darren Cahill, the former coach of American legend Andre Agassi, has revealed why his former pupil has decided to coach 12-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic.
Cahill, known for having one of the sharpest minds in the fraternity of tennis coaches, and the current coach of WTA No. 1 of Simona Halep spoke to the New York Times about Djokovic’s union with Agassi.
Cahill said: “I love the fact Andre is getting involved in tennis and love the fact he is passionate about Novak. A little bit the same with me and Simona, where I really like Simona as a person. Andre and Novak, they’ve gotten to know each other by phone, leading into the French Open, and have spent hours on the phone together talking about tennis and about life. Andre has a great respect for Novak, and they are exceptional friends now, and part of the reason why Andre is doing it is because he likes the guy.”
Cahill also shared his views about on-court coaching that is being introduced by the ATP in the men’s game on a trial basis.
“On-court coaching to me has been the biggest change and also going to be the biggest change over the next generation of tennis with men’s tennis bringing it in as well. I think it was great the WTA trialed it and brought it in and is doing what it’s doing. I think it could be much better than what it is. I think it’s restrictive doing it once a set. The fact the coaches go out there and have to pile information on the player, because they only get a chance to talk to a player once a set. It’s difficult because quite often you are only getting brought out there when you are down in a set, so it’s more an emotional talk than it is a strategic talk.”
He added: “I think the ATP has stepped back and had a long hard look at it and decided they are going to trial the headsets. Which was actually my idea by the way: to trial a headset scenario where the player walks to the change of ends and if he wants to talk to the coach puts on a headset and the coach does the same thing, and they have this conversation between the two, just like they have in a practice session. I think it’s a great thing trying to bring tennis into more living rooms and to make it more interesting.”
