Hands up if back in December 2013 you thought there was no way Boris Becker and Novak Djokovic would still be a thing right now. Hands up if you also thought there was little chance Djokovic would improve as a player because of Becker's presence.
I count myself among those who put their hand up, and I admit that as someone who grew up thinking there was no higher purpose to life than emulating Becker diving at the net to reach a volley.
He did that, he once joked, because he was too slow in getting to the right positions; more seriously, he added, he did it to send a signal to the opponent – the body will be sacrificed if it means winning a point.
At the time, the appointment seemed like it was merely an early mover to the bandwagon on which Andy Murray was the true trendsetter.
Murray had hired Ivan Lendl and was ascendant, having won a couple of majors and Olympic gold. And when a host of players, including Roger Federer, started hiring former players around the same time, Djokovic-Becker began to look a little faddish.
How difficult was it to see it ending in tears?
Djokovic perhaps unleashing the anger that you just know is burrowed deep inside him somewhere but which peeps out ever so occasionally, clashing with headstrong, limelight-loving Boris who maybe does not want tennis to get in the way of a good life anymore?
Or that there may come no discernible improvement in Djokovic’s game. Becker was a fun broadcaster but a coach?
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When Djokovic lost in the quarter-finals at the 2014 Australian Open and finished runner-up at Roland Garros, Becker was, to some minds, a celebrity accessory.
Djokovic even accepted early on that it was a “risk” hiring Becker, though, in context, he meant any change to coaching staff is a risk at some level.
So, wow – not only that they have outlasted Lendl-Murray and Stefan Edberg-Federer among others, but also that Djokovic has significantly improved.
Since Becker coming on, Djokovic has won five out of the seven grand slam finals he has played; before him he had won six out of 12. In the immediate run-up to reaching out to Becker he had won just one out of five slam finals.
Now admittedly all manner of factors outside the control of both could, and probably, have played a part. The injury-ridden decline of Rafael Nadal, especially given his form in 2013, cannot be ignored. But Djokovic's game has clearly grown with Becker. For one there is a more incisive serve, the first, but specifically his second which now actually means something other than being a vehicle to start a point.
Over the past two years, he has hit a greater percentage of first serves than any previous year, at least from 2008, when he won his first major.
In 2015, he won a greater percentage of points off his second serve than he had ever done before. Becker was one of the game’s great servers and to imagine no correlation would be delusional.
That germ of passivity that had implanted itself in Djokovic’s game around 2012 and 2013 has also gone.
Over the past year he has played points more decisively, looking to end them quicker. On his way to winning Wimbledon last year, he even started approaching the net more than before.
Yet he has lost none of his relentlessness, his willingness, as with Becker, to put his body on the line every point.
In the early months of their relationship, Djokovic has said, Becker was a distant observer, gradually immersing himself in Djokovic’s world, his game and life.
Becker likely needed that time to understand his own role, one that required him to subsume his personality to that of his project. Two full seasons together now, the first of which was very good and the second so great it is among the best men’s tennis has seen.
Still, this season is important – in fact, the next two weeks.
From Sunday begins the one slam to elude Djokovic, as it did Becker. Win the French Open, complete the career slam and their partnership will have more than just worked – it will have been transformational.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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