Marian Vajda was named ATP Coach of the Year in the 2018 ATP Tour Awards. The Slovakian coach has been recognised for helping Novak Djokovic climb from world number 22 last June to number 1 at the end of the season.
Novak Djokovic ended the season at the top of the ATP Ranking after a remarkable come-back from an elbow injury which ruined the second half of 2017 and the first part of this year. He underwent a right elbow operation after the Australian Open. After reuniting with Vajda Djokovic won two Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon and at the US Open last summer and two Masters 1000 titles in Cincinnati and Shanghai after dropping to world number 22 last June with a record of six wins in twelve matches in the first six months of the year. He also finished runner-up in two more finals at Queen’s and Paris Bercy.
The Belgrade-native star ended the year as the world number 1 for the fifth time in his career after 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015. Only US legend Pete Sampras did better with six end-of season top rankings.
As a player Vajda won two titles in Prague 1987 and Geneva in 1988 and reached a career high of world number 34 in 1987. He was captain of the Sloavakian Davis Cup team. For his successful coaching career with Djokovic, Vajda won the award for best coach by the Olympic Committee of Serbia in 2010 and 2011.
“I am really glad that after coming back, he reached number 1 in the world”, said Vajda.
The other finalists for the ATP Coach of the Year Award were Jan De Witt (Nikoloz Basilashvili, winner in Hamburg and Beijing), Carlos Moya (Rafael Nadal, winner at Roland Garros, Rome, Monte-Carlo, Barcelona and Toronto), Sebastian Prieto (Juan Martin Del Potro) and Simone Vagnozzi (Marco Cecchinato, semifinalist at Roland Garros, winner in Budapest and Umag).
