Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic no longer cooperates with the Slovak coach Marian Vajda, who helped him to 20 grand slam titles. The 34-year-old announced that they had agreed to break up in November after the Champions Tournament.
“Marian has stood by my side at the most important and memorable moments of my career. We have accomplished incredible things together. I am very grateful for his friendship and dedication over the past fifteen years,” Djokovic said in a statement.
The Serb, who lost his world number one position this week due to a quarter-final defeat with Jiří Veselý in Dubai, has been preparing for Vajd’s leadership since 2006. He said goodbye to him in 2017, but a year later the Slovak coach returned to his implementation team.
“I was lucky to be able to watch Novak become the player he is today. I will remember our times together with pride,” Vajda said.
Djokovic will continue to be helped with the preparation of the Croatian Goran Ivaniševič, with whom he has been cooperating since 2019. In the past, Boris Becker, Radek Štěpánek and Andre Agassi took turns by his side.
Djokovic, who could not defend the Australian Open title due to aversion to vaccination, had to relinquish first place in the rankings to Russian Daniil Medvedev. The Serb spent a record 361 weeks as world number one.
