Former world No.1 Andre Agassi reiterates that it was a clash of opinions that contributed towards the breakdown in his partnership with Novak Djokovic.
Agassi mentored the 20-time Grand Slam winner for a 11-month period between 2017-2018. His tenure took place at a time when Djokovic was struggling on the court due to injury. Towards the end of their collaboration, rumours started to emerge of a conflict between the two with the American once saying that the tennis star wouldn’t listen to him. After his stint with Agassi and Radek Stepanek, Djokovic reunited with former coach Marian Vajda who oversaw his return to the top.
Speaking about his previous coaching role, Agassi says he has no judgement concerning the split. Saying that the reason why he wanted to help in the first place was because he felt it would be ‘best for tennis.’ The 50-year-old won 60 ATP titles during his career, including eight major trophies.
“I wasn’t helping him for me. My reasons were because I believed that it’s best for tennis if somehow he could get the best out of himself and then getting to know him & his family, I had a desire to help,” Agassi told CNBC-TV18.
“My goal is to help you, but if I am in your way or if I am stopping your process or interfering with your process then it’s best I sort of step out of your way. But I can’t necessarily subscribe to the choices that you are making. So there is a delicate balancing act and my comment about him (Djokovic) was that we just far too often found ourselves to agreeing to disagree and that is ok too. There’s no judgement in it.”
Elaborating further, Agassi said he hoped his decision to step aside enabled Djokovic to process their work to become an even better player. Since their split, he has managed to win six out of 10 Grand Slam tournaments played.
Throughout his career the Serbian has been mentioned in the heavily debated Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) debate. Along with his two rivals Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer whom he has a winning head-to-head record against. Deciding which player in the greatest remains a very subjective topic with Agassi refusing to get drawn in on the discussion.
“I think if you took the three best to talk about — obviously Roger, Rafa & Novak. It is different to say who has the best career and it is different to say when somebody is playing at their best, who is the best,” he said.
“We have the best on fast grass courts with Roger, we have the best on clay, and we have the best on hard courts. There are multiple surfaces, they can play with each other a hundred times and I will give you the answer.”
Earlier this year Djokovic surpassed Federer for the most weeks spent as world No.1 in history on the men’s Tour.
