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As Andre Agassi begins working with Novak Djokovic, the age of the 'super coach' is upon us

Andre Agassi will work with Novak Djokovic for the first time over the next fortnight: Getty
Andre Agassi will work with Novak Djokovic for the first time over the next fortnight: Getty

When Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic contest their first matches here at the French Open next week you can expect the lenses of the photographers and cameramen to focus as much on the player boxes as on the court. The Scot and the Serb are ranked No 1 and No 2 in the world, but there will be many times when it will be their coaches who will be the centre of attention.

The trend for top players to employ “super coaches” has been gathering pace, particularly with Djokovic’s appointment of Andre Agassi, who will be working with Roland Garros’ defending champion for the first time over the next fortnight.

Can Agassi arrest the slide in fortunes of a player who has struggled so much since his victory here 12 months ago, when he became the first man for 47 years to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time? Just as pertinently, can Lendl, who will be working with Murray at a tournament for the first time since January, help the Scot rediscover the form which has largely deserted him ever since he replaced Djokovic at the top of the world rankings at the end of last year?

Agassi and Lendl are just two of a growing group of former top players who are working with leading men. They include Carlos Moya (who is part of Rafael Nadal’s entourage), Michael Chang (Kei Nishikori), Goran Ivanisevic (Tomas Berdych), Richard Krajicek (Milos Raonic) and Jonas Bjorkman (Marin Cilic). Even Nick Kyrgios, who has flown solo for the last two years and could usually be relied upon to tread a different path to others, has joined the mainstream by recruiting France’s Sebastien Grosjean, a former world No 4, to his support team.

One of the reasons why legends of the game used to be reluctant to enter coaching was the prospect of returning to a routine of having to live out of suitcases in different hotels from one week to the next. However, Agassi’s recruitment demonstrates how much the modern game’s top players are willing to be flexible.

Agassi, who has never coached a top player before, is not even intending to be at Roland Garros for the full fortnight as he and Djokovic test the water. The arrangement will become more permanent if it suits both parties, but in the light of Agassi’s other interests – especially his charter school in Las Vegas – it is hard to imagine him wanting to commit to much more than the fortnight of competition and one week of preparation that would probably be required four times a year, at each of the Grand Slam events.

Most of the top men also work with “career” coaches, who are prepared to fill in the gaps in the players’ tournament schedules. Djokovic has yet to appoint a replacement for his long-time coach, Marian Vajda, who used to dovetail with Boris Becker but found himself out of work earlier this month when the Serb dismissed his entire back room team. For the moment Djokovic’s brother, Marko, and his spiritual guru, Pepe Imaz, have been helping out in recent weeks.


Murray has Jamie Delgado, who has been part of his team for the last 18 months, Nadal has his uncle Toni, who has coached him since he was a boy, and Nishikori has Dante Bottini, a long-standing member of staff at the IMG Academy in Florida founded by Nick Bollettieri.

In the past Agassi had been mentioned as a potential coach for Murray, who as a boy loved watching the American play, but instead it has been Djokovic who has persuaded him to return to a sport which, according to his autobiography, he hated from an early age.

“Having Andre Agassi as a coach is a dream come true,” Djokovic said this week. “He’s someone I was looking up to when I was younger. We have similar styles of the game, very similar. He has been considered to be one of the greatest returners of all time. I have been relying a lot on the return in my game throughout my career.”

Djokovic said the agreement to work together in Paris came after several telephone conversations between the two men earlier this month.

Djokovic's form has suffered over the past year (Getty)
Djokovic's form has suffered over the past year (Getty)

“He has been away from the tour for the last 10, 15 years, but speaking with him, he's definitely been following all the big matches closely, especially on the TV,” Djokovic said. “He knows everyone that I’ve been playing against in the last couple of weeks. We talked before every match, more or less.”

Murray, meanwhile, is in his second spell working with Lendl, who helped to turn the Scot into a Grand Slam champion after joining his team at the start of 2012 but parted company two years later.

The major reason for their split was the fact that Lendl did not want to make the time commitment that Murray required, but they got back together last summer and enjoyed immediate success. Murray won nine of his last 12 tournaments in 2016, including Wimbledon, as he overhauled Djokovic’s huge lead at the top of the world rankings.

The fact that he did so despite Lendl’s continuing absences gives Murray hope that the formula can work again this year, though the signs so far have not been particularly encouraging. The Scot’s surge towards the top began in last year’s clay-court season, during which he won the title in Rome and reached the finals in both Paris and Madrid, but he has yet to make a final on terre battue in 2017.

Lendl and Murray now have the prospect of a long run together (Getty)
Lendl and Murray now have the prospect of a long run together (Getty)

The last tournament where Murray and Lendl worked together was the Australian Open in January, but at least they now have the prospect of a long run together. “Depending on how I get on in Paris - and hopefully it goes well – Ivan will be there for the majority of the grass-court season,” Murray said. “Obviously if it goes badly, then maybe he goes home after the French for a bit.”

Moya, a fellow Majorcan and former world No 1, was an important factor in Nadal’s fine start to this year. Nadal reached the finals of the Australian Open and Miami Masters before losing on both occasions to Roger Federer, whose absence from the French Open, which he is skipping in order to focus on his preparations for the grass and hard-court seasons, might be a welcome relief to some of his rivals.

While Moya encouraged Nadal to play a more aggressive game on hard courts, he has taken more of a back seat during the clay-court season. After all, Toni Nadal has the experience of having helped his nephew win nine French Open titles.

“Toni knows me very well on clay,” Nadal said. “Carlos obviously knows me very well too, but I think Toni has more experience about what I need.”