‘He’s Lacking That…’- Serena Williams’ Ex-Coach Discloses ‘Rafael Nadal Reason’ Behind Novak Djokovic Playing Back-to-Back Low-Tier Events

Novak Djokovic is playing at the Astana Open at the moment. The former coach of Serena Williams and current coach of Simona Halep, Patrick Mouratoglou, evaluated the reason behind Djokovic’s decision to play such low-ranked ATP tournaments.

Apart from that, he talked about the consistency that tennis players need to keep their form strong, especially Djokovic, who is looking to win as many majors as possible.

Serena Williams’ former coach Patrick Mouratoglou on Novak Djokovic

The French coach took to his Instagram account to explain the reasons behind Djokovic playing low-ranked ATP tournaments. As we all know, Djokovic is in Astana, looking to win his 90th ATP title. However, why is a top player like Djokovic is playing in such events? The answer was provided by with the current coach of Simona Halep.

He talked about Djokovic’s goal and said, “Novak has one goal which is to win as many grand slams as possible because he is in a race with Rafa.” Stating his present condition, he said, “He doesn’t have many chances; he has only two per year because for the moment he does not play Australian Open and US Open.”

Not being able to play had put the player in jeopardy. Williams‘ former coach said, “You need matches, you need to be in the rhythm and you need to win matches and he is lacking that.”

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Halep’s coach added, “Not having a short-term goal creates unnecessary hurdles for the player and that is what Djokovic is fighting with at the moment.” The French coach explained the reason behind his participation in these tours. He said, “One of the reasons why he is playing these low-rank tournaments because he needs to keep the rhythm and keep the motivation in order to get ready for the Australian Open.” 

Why is Djokovic participating in low-tier tournaments?

At this point, he is ranked world no. 7. He lost a lot of his ranking points because of Wimbledon getting stripped off of its ranking points. As a result, his victory at the grass-court major did not help in improving his ranking.

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Moreover, Djokovic could not play in many tournaments because of his vaccination stance. He will play the final of the Astana Open against Stefanos Tsitsipas. Before competing in this event, he won the Tel Aviv Watergen Open. Apart from that, winning these tournaments, more or less, assures his participation at the ATP finals in Turin where he will aim to equalize the record of six-time champion Roger Federer. Do you think Djokovic can end this disappointing season on a high at Turin?