The 2016 French Open was the pivotal moment of Novak Djokovic’s career, favourably as well as unfavourably.
Djokovic reached the zenith of his career in winning the title and became the first player since Rod Laver to hold all four Grand Slams at the same time. And just like that, he started to slip up, with his results dropping in the tournaments thereafter.
Much of the vociferation about his revival in the year quietened down while the raucousness of his coach Boris Becker also came to be muted. The Serbian looked to be nonchalant about the rest of his season, but the same could not be said for the German. However, keen as he was to push Djokovic onward on the court, the Monte Carlo resident seemingly came up with out-of-the-box ideas to re-jig his motivation.
In the end, their digressing thought processes negated all possibilities of them working together. The way both chose to reveal their decisions also indicated how separate they had come to be.
Djokovic announced his decision in a respectful manner. On the other hand, Becker opted to take a potshot at his former student by stating, “Our hands were tied a little bit because we couldn’t do the work we wanted to do. He didn’t spend as much time on the practice court in the last six months as he should have, and he knows that. Success like this doesn’t happen by pushing a button. Success like this doesn’t just happen by showing up at a tournament. You have to work your bottom off because the opposition does the same.”