Boris Becker has revealed that Novak Djokovic was battling “inner demons” when they began working together in 2014, and that the Serb struggled to overcome Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer until he addressed these issues. The German tennis legend details their partnership in his new Apple TV+ documentary, Boom! Boom! The World vs Boris Becker, released on 7 April.
Becker explained that Djokovic often faltered in major finals due to personal struggles. “We spoke, I said ‘I’m too old to bulls**t you,’” Becker recalled. He challenged Djokovic to adopt a winner’s mindset: “Do you want your mother to cry or do you want his mother to cry? … Because Rafa wants to do the same, Roger wants to do the same and Andy [Murray] wants to do the same. They want to protect their families. So now go out and do it.”
Djokovic confirmed that their discussion about off-court distractions spurred him to hire Becker. “He asked me, so what do you want from tennis? Do you have clarity of your goals? … I want to write the history of the sport and I want to do it with you so we clicked right away,” Djokovic said.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion cited his 2014 Wimbledon final victory over Federer as evidence of Becker’s impact. “Having him there … he was just so serene, he was just so strong … In those most important moments having Boris there just gave me that fuel and that extra inch to overcome the challenge,” Djokovic added. He described 2014 as a “springboard” for their successful two-and-a-half-year partnership.
