Dubai: World number two Novak Djokovic has urged his fans to be patient for results following his link-up with the legendary Boris Becker.
The 26-year-old Serbian has so far played in two tournaments and failed to defend both his titles, namely the Australian Open and the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open, that concluded here late on Saturday.
Becker was drafted on Djokovic’s team as coach along with Marian Vajda from the beginning of this season. Now after two tournaments, the German has not been able to see his new student successfully defend both of the trophies he had won last year.
However, Djokovic is not particularly worried. “I think people are expecting a little bit too much,” he said.
“Maybe they are expecting me to play with my left hand [and win],” he joked.
On Friday, Djokovic was at his very best in his semi-final against Roger Federer before a capacity crowd at the Dubai Tennis Stadium. However, as the match progressed the former world number one from Switzerland found his subtle touch and took the next two sets with ease to hand Djokovic yet another defeat.
“Everybody has been asking me every day what I have been improving. We are working on certain details in my game, but it’s nothing significant that I’m going to change. I’m not going to play serve and volley,” he said.
“We are working on positioning of the court. And as I repeated a hundred times from the beginning of the year, it’s just the beginning of the year so it takes a little bit of time for us to get to know each other and really feel the benefits of our partnership,” Djokovic added.
“I haven’t repeated the success I have had in last year, maybe the year before that, but it’s normal in sport. You can’t always expect to do well in certain tournaments. When you lose against a better player, you shake hands and that’s it. You move on and try to take the best out of it.”
