‘Pressure of This Sport Is Exhausting’- Novak Djokovic’s Ex-Coach Marian Vajda Reveals the Adversities Behind Coaching the World no.1
As Novak Djokovic’s Ex-Coach Marian Vajda has said, a tennis coach’s life is “always on the move, from one continent to another”. While the position can mentor, inspire, and mold athletes’ lives, it is “constantly under scrutiny.” Few relationships have endured and had such a profound effect as the one between Novak Djokovic and his longtime coach, Goran Ivanisevic. The 36-year-old Serbian tennis player’s other ex-coach, Marian Vajda, recently opened up about how it’s not easy to coach the world number one.
Well, tennis creates an “exhausting” pressure on the coaches to be the immediate answerable person “when a tennis player loses”. From that experience, Vajda has shared a lot of unseen parts of the sports which might help the tennis fans to understand the situation between Djokovic and Ivanisevic.
Novak Djokovic’s ex-coach thinks that the “pressure in tournaments was very strong” for him
The 59-year-old tennis coach recently revealed in an interview how being a coach to a top-ranked player comes with a lot of responsibilities and how it’s exhausting to be one at the same time. He stated, “We were always on the move, from one continent to another. I always had to say goodbye to my family without knowing how long I would be away and the pressure in tournaments was very strong, even for me.”
via Imago
Marian Vajda clearly highlighted that the coaches are always traveling from one place to another, leaving their families behind, and even enduring the pressure and stress that come with every other tournament. On the other hand, he also detailed how every now and then, whenever things go wrong, it’s the coach who faces the problem more than the players.
Further, he added, “You know, in tennis, the coach is constantly under scrutiny. The pressure of this sport is exhausting even for the coach. In football when a team loses, it’s never the fault of a single individual, you don’t go and look at how the coach worked every time to prepare for that game. Whereas when a tennis player loses, the coach is immediately questioned.”
Not only that, but when the 24-time Grand Slam champion shared the huge news of splitting up with his long-time coach, Goran Ivanisevic, because the player wanted to try a different perspective, Jimmy Connor opened up about how the Croatian former tennis player, felt under scrutiny out of nowhere.
Jimmy Connors take on Djokovic’s split with Goran Ivanisevic
The eight-time Grand Slam winner offered his thoughts on Novak Djokovic’s decision to break away from his longtime coach in one of the recent episodes of his Advantage Connors podcast.
Jimmy Connors suggested that the 24-time Major winner likely sought a new outlook on how to improve following a tumultuous beginning to his 2024 season. With a humorous tone, he said, “For a [fresh] set of eyes, maybe. I think sometimes shaking it up, but isn’t it funny? It’s always the coach’s fault. You know, ‘Time to get rid of the coach!’.”
While he clearly agreed that sometimes after spending a lot of time together, people need a break, rather than splitting, one needs to try to shake things up. “Maybe Goran has taken him and given him as much as he can,” – he said.
