Novak Djokovic is all set to begin a 2018 season after a six-month long break and with a new look coaching team and possibly a Moneyball-like advantage.

The former world No 1 called time on his season late July after struggling on and off for 18 months with a right elbow injury. He had been struggling on and off for 18 months, without adding to his 12 Majors since completing the career Grand Slam at the 2016 French Open

Preparing for his long-awaited comeback at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi from December 28-30, Djokovic has added a lot more to his arsenal. The recently-retired Radek Stepanek has joined his coaching team as head coach and he will be complemented by Andre Agassi. The American great and former doubles specialist Stepanek will replace the Serb’s former coaching duo of Boris Becker and Marian Vajda. He had parted company with Becker last year and ended a seven-year association with Vajda in May.

Now, the high-profile coaching team will be enhanced by the addition of Craig O’Shannessy. A journalist-turned-coach who specialises in strategic analysis. He has been around the tour for about 20 years and has worked with 2017 US Open runner-up Kevin Anderson and Dustin Brown during his Wimbledon 2015 upset of Rafael Nadal.

The brain behind Brain Game Tennis, he spoke to Metro.co.uk about how he plans to work on Djokovic’s game in 2018 among other things. One of the things that stood out in the conversation was how O’Shannessy outlined the analytic patterns of the opponent’s game, mainly Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the ATP stars of 2017.

“Everyone has got their favourite patterns of what they want to do. Roger is one of the greatest servers in the history of the game but there are other elements. Roger has still got to return, there are still rallies that are going on, he’s still going to miss first serves…

“There are still times where Roger is untouchable and that’s ok, but there are still times that all opponents will get a chance to get into the service games and that’s where you want to know what part of the court is best to attack and why and what to expect will be coming back,” O’Shannessy told Metro.co.uk

The coach already has the experience of besting Nadal through his tactics. “It’s the same as when I was working with Dustin Brown against Nadal. Rafa has got parts of the court where he’s not nearly as comfortable.Dustin was able to take advantage of that and that’s why he won – 90% of that game plan had very little to do with Dustin and had to do with plugging in to what Rafa didn’t want to do and Dustin made a great job making that happen,” he explained.

With such insight into his two biggest opponents, O’Shannessy’s addition to Djokovic’s team will be invaluable and might just be the tipping point in the 2018 season.

O’Shannessy has full faith that the 12-time Grand Slam champ can get back to his heydays, starting from his favourite Melbourne Park. “Roger came back and won the Australian Open after a long layoff so anything is possible,” he said.

Powered by a successful team and backed by the numbers approach, watch out for Novak Djokovic 2.0 in 2018.

You can read the full interview on Metro.co.uk