Ancic Joins Djokovic’s Coaching Team

Novak Djokovic is bringing in coaching reinforcement for Wimbledon.The three-time Wimbledon champion will arrive at SW19 armed with a new coaching team.Watch: 10 Thoughts On Wimbledon Men's DrawDjokovic has added former world No. 7 and long-time friend Mario Ancic to his coaching team, joining Hall of Fame head coach Andre Agassi, who will be at Wimbledon for as long as Djokovic remains in the draw.The 30-year-old Serbian formally announced his partnership with Ancic after dismissing Gael Monfils for the 14th time in a row, winning the Aegon Interational Eastbourne in his Devonshire Park debut.The pair have not signed a long-term commitment. Instead, they will assess their partnership after Wimbledon.Djokovic suggested Ancic should be able to travel the pro circuit more frequently than Agassi, who does not like to leave his family, wife Steffi Graf and their two children, for extended periods of time.“Andre cannot be committed full time. I mean, he's someone that has a very busy life, has family,” Djokovic said. “He's probably going to come on the biggest tournaments, and whenever he has free time in the schedule, he's going to come and support me and help me out.“Mario, on the other hand, as well is someone that is very busy. I think he works on Wall Street for last couple of years, so he went completely, you know, kind of other direction from tennis. He was always very nice guy, very smart. I remember even during his career he studied law. You know, he had a lot of energy put into education, as well, which not many athletes do these days. Most of all, we stayed friends.”

Interestingly, Ancic’s lone victory over Djokovic came 11 years ago in the Wimbledon fourth round. A young Ancic famously swept the young Roger Federer in the opening round of the 2002 Wimbledon.Djokovic and the 33-year-old Ancic have stayed in touch over the years.The 12-time Grand Slam champion said Agassi agreed with his decision to hire Ancic.“We always had that respect, mutual respect, and appreciation for one another,” Djokovic said. “We have talked, obviously with Andre first, and we have made a conclusion that we need someone, you know, next to Andre that is going to be maybe more frequently with me and more often on the small tournaments or maybe some practice weeks and so forth.“You know, Mario was the perfect guy. At the moment he was definitely on top of my list. And Andre agrees, as well.”Neither Ancic nor Agassi have a formal written contract with Djokovic, who said he and Ancic will assess their partnership after Wimbledon.“We don't have, Mario and I, any long-term commitment, as well,” Djokovic said. “He was anyway prescheduled to be in London for his own commitments, so he's going to use the opportunity to be with me. So whether we're going to build from there a long-term relationship or not, we'll see. I don't know.During Ancic's days on the pro circuit, Djokovic and Ancic frequently hit together.

“I think what we talked about kind of between the lines is just to be now in Wimbledon and maybe, you know, if we decide to continue, to maybe spend a few more weeks till the end of the season and then see where we take it from there, because, you know, he's obviously engaged in a lot of businesses and he's working for, you know, big companies. It's not easy just to give up the work like that, you know, because we just talked about this potential work in couple weeks, few weeks ago. So it's still very fresh.”Photo credit: Mario Ancic @AncicMario
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