Novak Djokovic and Boris Becker were among the most successful player and coach duos in tennis history during their time together. The German led the Serb to a career grand slam, six majors and 14 Masters 1000 crowns, and worked with Djokovic during his dominant season on the tour.
Becker and Djokovic have remained friends, and Boris was there to congratulate Novak when he won that epic Wimbledon title against Roger Federer in July 2019. In his most recent interview, the six-time major winner defended his former student and letter to Craig Tiley.
Becker said Novak had no bad intentions and just wanted to improve the quarantine of players ahead of the season’s first major. Seventy-two players cannot leave the room during the Melbourne quarantine, making their preparations for the Australian Open extremely difficult.
Novak pointed out a few things that could have been improved. Still, the Austrian government and health officials didn’t even want to listen, saying that they are already doing everything they can for the players in the bubble.
Boris Becker stood on Novak Djokovic’s side after another controversy
“The points he wrote down were absolutely right and legitimate. You have the feeling that Djokovic can do what he wants at the moment.
He just gets a lot of criticism. In this case, really unjustified. He tried to stand up for the players and create fair conditions for everyone, but was harshly criticized even by the country’s prime minister.
I think it’s important for Australia, and especially Melbourne, that the players come to Melbourne. It’s good for the city and good for business. The country and the city benefit, and then you have to treat the players more fairly and with more respect.
From a field of 128 players, 70 players are affected. A third of them are in Australia under adverse conditions. When they come out of quarantine, they haven’t even been out in the fresh air and haven’t played tennis.
No matter how many steps they took in the room, they didn’t play a ball and then they have a week to prepare for the best-of-five games in the warm conditions, at least for the men.
This task doesn’t really work. All the winter preparation was in vain. You have to ask yourself if these are fair terms for everyone. As an organizer you have to ask yourself: Is that correct, is it sensible? “Said Boris Becker.
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