Djokovic finding form in Monte-Carlo after coach split
Novak Djokovic’s search for the winning formula led the world No. 2 to part ways with coach Todd Martin before the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, and so far the results have been positive.
The Serb opened strongly with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over France’s Florent Serra in the second round. Sure, there were some criticisms to be made on serve, where Djokovic managed to save nine break points, but for the first match of the clay court season, it was something that the player himself commented afterwards that “I have to be happy with”.
Next up was Grand Prix Hassan II titlist Stanislas Wawrinka in the third round. Admittedly, in Casablanca Wawrinka didn’t face opposition anywhere near the same calibre that Djokovic presented yesterday, but the Swiss had had the chance to play himself into form on the surface over the preceding week.
Djokovic though got the job done winning the match 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 42 minutes. The top seed will have to tighten up his game if he’s to go one better than his runner-up performance at Monte-Carlo last year – his 12 winners against Wawrinka were offset by 32 unforced errors – but it’s an improvement on the state of his game since leaving the hard courts after losing his opening match of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
It was after that loss to 59th-ranked Olivier Rochus that Djokovic announced his split with Martin, who the 22-year-old had added to his coaching staff in August last year, alongside long-time coach Marian Vadja.
Speaking of his departure from the Djokovic camp, dual Grand slam runner-up Martin told ATPWorldTour.com, “Our work together was successful based on his progress in achieving a career high ranking of No. 2. I was committed to a process to help Novak reach his potential, but in the end we had different thoughts on that process and how to achieve this goal.”
Perhaps Martin was the fall guy for the sketchy form that began at the Dubai Tennis Championships in February, where Djokovic routinely fell behind in his matches before clawing his way back into them and eventually overcome his opponent in a deciding their set.
Djokovic strung together three of those come-from-behind victories on his way to the final in Dubai, and ultimately fought his way past Mikhail Youzhny in three sets to defend his title. Those fighting qualities are to be commended, especially in a player whose toughness on court has been questioned in the past, but that tournament victory should have helped Djokovic to iron out the kinks in his game.
It didn’t, and by the time he arrived at the BNP Paribas Masters at Indian Wells Djokovic still hadn’t given up on his Houdini impersonations. If anything, they had become more dramatic as he saved three match points against Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round, before eventual titlist Ivan Ljubicic allowed the Serb no such escape in the round of 16.
The loss to Rochus in Miami followed, and so did Martin’s departure from team Djokovic.
Whatever Djokovic’s reasoning, it was at least a pro-active move. He’s back working solely with the coach who helped him to the Australian Open crown in 2008 and provided Vadja still has some wisdom to impart to his charge it’s hard to argue that this won’t continue to be a successful partnership.
However, it’s equally difficult to judge though whether the split with Martin has been good for Djokovic’s game after just two matches.
Truth be told, while it’s encouraging to see Djokovic making more positive starts to his matches at Monte-Carlo, when compared to the commanding performances defending champion Rafael Nadal has put on in his first two matches, the top seed still has some fairly rapid improving to do if he’s to finish as the last man standing at the year’s third Masters 1000 event.
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