Latest news with #Djokovic
Daily Record
16 hours ago
- Sport
- Daily Record
Andy Murray speaks out about tennis future after splitting with Novak Djokovic
Tennis icon Andy Murray has spoken about what would convince him to return to coaching after his brief spell working with Novak Djokovic Andy Murray has revealed the conditions that would entice him back into tennis coaching. The 38-year-old began a surprising partnership with former adversary Novak Djokovic late last year, which came to an end in May. This leaves Murray contemplating his next move within the world of tennis. The two-time Wimbledon champion opted not to attend this year's tournament at the All England Club, either as a spectator or commentator. Murray has been candid about his challenges as a novice coach, although he did help Djokovic reach the Australian Open semi-finals. Since hanging up his racket, the tennis legend has also ventured into the business realm, joining Redrice Ventures as an associate partner in May. However, Murray has clarified what might persuade him to restart his coaching career. "Yeah, I would [return to coaching] if it was the right sort of project," Murray told The Tennis Mentor. "I think I probably enjoy working with a younger player and trying to influence them from a younger age. Try to help any of the British players if they want and it works out just now. "I think I would coach again in the future but I'm just not sure if that will be in the immediate future. I was not planning on going back on the road when Novak called. "It wasn't something that-I was not missing tennis and desperate to get back on the road. It was a pretty unique opportunity. I think at some stage I would like to do it again." Murray recently embarked on a speaking tour and joked that he was "not sure" he enjoyed his role as Djokovic's coach. Murray was not expecting a job offer from the 24-time Grand Slam winner and found the opportunity too good to turn down. It has been two months since the pair announced they were parting ways. That has given Murray time to reflect on his spell as a coach and ways he can improve. Murray highlighted that top players are not often given technical advice once they turn professional, which left him unable to confidently give Djokovic the type of coaching he was searching for. When asked what he had learned about himself through working as a coach, Murray explained: "I think, first of all, you learn a lot about your weaknesses. I think a lot of very different being a player and a coach, which I expected. Obviously, when you're working with someone at that level, it probably shows up your strengths but also your weaknesses as well as a coach. "Something that I would say most ex-players are sort of weak at is the technical side of the game. At times, Novak was looking for quite a lot of technical feedback and it was something that I didn't really feel comfortable with. "One, in terms of how to teach somebody technique. I think coaches that work with younger players and are used to doing that are actually stronger than a lot of coaches that work on tour, because once a player is sort of 20, 22 years old, you're not trying to overhaul their game and technique. It's like little changes here and there. So that was something that definitely, if I was going to coach in the future, I would want to work on and learn from someone who's very good at that." Murray has not ruled out a return to coaching, as he explained how he plans to improve his skillset. "Louis Cayer is one of the coaches that I worked with during my career on the technical side, who was fantastic," Murray added. "He's someone I've reached out to since my time with Novak to talk about potentially getting some coaching for my coaching on that side of things."
Hans India
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Hans India
MyVoice: Views of our readers 15th July 2025
A sad day for south Indian cinema It felt sad to hear of the demise of the veteran actress B. Saroja Devi in Bengaluru on Monday at the age of 87. Known affectionately as 'Kannadathu Paingili' (Kannada's parrot), she debuted on a thumping note as a 17-year-old in the Kannada film 'Mahakavi Kalidasa (1955)', which won her a national award. In course of time, she was hailed as the first female superstar of Kannada cinema. She joined the top league after being paired with the legendary M G Ramachandran (MGR) in the 1958 Tamil blockbuster 'Nadodi Mannan'. The 'Abhinaya Saraswathi' has worked in over 200 films, including in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. The crowning glory came in the form of the Padma Bhushan for her immense contributions to the world of cinema. A great actress, her legacy will live on. Bhagwan Thadani, Mumbai New tennis rivalry takes shape We have a new Wimbledon champion in J Sinner, who defeated C Alcaraz in the finals without much sweat. This is seemingly the commencement of a great rivalry between the two outstanding players. Rivalries in any sport add spice and generate more spectator interest. In tennis, it was the Jimmy Connors-Bjorn Borg-John McEnroe rivalry that setthe courts on fire. This was followed by the rivalry between Roger-Federer, Rafeal Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who ruled the roost. Following his loss in the semis, it is likely that Djokovic, winner of a staggering 24 Grand Slam titles, will call it day after the US Open. Djokovic has been playing opponents who were toddlers when he started his career. However, in the modern-day power-driven tennis, younger players have the distinct edge over even seasoned campaigners. Anthony Henriques, Mumbai Nipah danger looms in the corner The resurgence of the Nipah virus in Kerala has raised significant public health concerns, following the confirmed death of a 58-year-old man in Palakkad district. Six districts have been placed on high alert, with over 500 people under surveillance. Despite proactive measures by the state's health authorities—including isolation protocols, contact tracing, and mandatory mask usage—the highly infectious and often fatal nature of the virus continues to cause alarm. The virus, believed to be transmitted by fruit bats and through close human contact, poses a serious threat if not contained swiftly. Given the risk of interstate transmission due to travel and cross-border movement, other states are strongly advised to remain vigilant. Hospitals and health workers must be alert to early symptoms such as fever, headache, drowsiness or respiratory distress. Public gatherings in sensitive zones should be minimized, and people returning from affected regions must be closely monitored. The current situation serves as a warning, underscoring the need for heightened surveillance, public awareness, and preparedness across all states to prevent a wider outbreak. Dr Krishna Kumar Vepakomma, Hyderabad-45 Motivate students towards career in space science Group Captain Subhanshu Shukla's successful 14-day space odyssey with three others is a moment of pride for every Indian. It is a great achievement that the team completed 60 scientific studies and commercial activities while in space. I hope that many young students will get inspired by Shukla's dedication and accomplishments. Similarly, some ISRO scientists and officials should interact with students from across India and highlight the role of ISRO, its scientific brains, the team's methods of working, coordination, concentration and planning, among others. This can bolster many young minds to plan their career choice on these lines. Gudipati Shanti Priya , Secunderabad-11
Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Colin Sheridan: Federer was grace personified, Djokovic is triumph of discipline
In August 2006, the New York Times published an essay by writer David Foster Wallace titled Roger Federer as Religious Experience. If you've never read it, you should. Just like the subject of the piece, the words move on the page like phosphenes, those strange sensations of light experienced when there is no light to cause them. The essay began 'Almost anyone who loves tennis and follows the men's tour on television has, over the last few years, had what might be termed Federer Moments. These are times, as you watch the young Swiss play, when the jaw drops and eyes protrude and sounds are made that bring spouses in from other rooms to see if you're O.K.' So rapturous was Wallace in his praise of Federer that it crowned the young Swiss prince not just as the greatest tennis player of his generation but as the living embodiment of a transcendent ideal—grace manifest in muscle and nerve. 'Federer Moments,' Wallace called those brief, almost mystical episodes when physics itself seemed suspended by the beauty of Federer's game. But if Federer was the epiphany—something you could describe only in metaphors of religion or poetry—Novak Djokovic has always belonged to another register entirely. Where Federer floated, Djokovic grinds. Where Federer appeared to be a platonic form made flesh, Djokovic is unromantic, stubborn, clinical. Yet in his own way, he was no less sublime. He simply belongs to a more modern, less sentimental vision of excellence. Wallace found Federer's grace almost unbearable to witness, as if the body should not be able to do what it did with such serenity. Djokovic produces no such illusion. His movement is elastic rather than smooth, and his game is an extended demonstration of tensile strength. If Federer was balletic, Djokovic is contortionist—sliding, stretching, and twisting in patterns that seem to defy orthopedics more than physics. Watching Djokovic defend against a blistering forehand in the corner, then regain his balance and redirect pace up the line, isn't like witnessing an angel—it's like watching a human machine engineered to solve any problem thrown at it. In this way, Djokovic is a kind of democratising force in tennis. Federer inspired reverence; Djokovic, respect, and sometimes resentment. For the millions of club players who know that tennis is a sport of toil in rather than be an epiphany, Djokovic represents the truth: the unending repetition, the unwavering concentration, the capacity to adapt. Federer once said he never practiced sliding on hard courts—he simply did it. Djokovic, by contrast, has trained every facet of his technique, from his gluten-free diet to his breathing exercises to gain the last marginal advantages. If Federer was grace personified, Djokovic is the triumph of discipline over chaos. And it is precisely this contrast that makes Djokovic's accomplishments feel harder-won, even as they have surpassed or matched Federer's statistical records. Federer's career arc was a kind of narrative perfection: the young genius rises, dominates, then gracefully ages. Djokovic's has been messier, more contentious. He crashed the Federer-Nadal duopoly as an interloper, endured years of doubt about his mental toughness, and then transformed himself into an all-surface juggernaut. But that juggernaut is finally slowing. Sunday's encounter between Carlos Alcaraz (22) and Jannick Sinner (23) marked the first time since 2017 that the men's final will not include Djokovic, who had played for the Wimbledon title in 10 of the previous 12 years. It seems that Father Time may finally have broken the Serbian's serve. How interesting it wil be to watch whether the greatest tennis paper of all time on paper receives a similar send off to the games poet laureate. Wallace's paean to the class of Federer spoke to a reverence Djokovic has never enjoyed. He wrote that Federer was so beautiful it 'makes us feel as if we're observing a creature whose abilities are qualitatively different from our own.' Djokovic feels uncannily human. That is, he seems like someone who simply refused to be defeated by limits. He didn't emerge from the womb with effortless genius; he became great by iteration, by solving each of his game's weaknesses. His backhand return is now the best in history, not because of some inborn gift but because he turned it into a weapon through relentless work. This, too, is sublime, though of a more modern, unsentimental sort. In Djokovic, we see not a divine talent but a parable of improvement: the possibility that any failing can be corrected. Even his mental fortitude, once considered fragile, has become his defining advantage. Consider the 2019 Wimbledon final against Federer, where he saved two championship points on Federer's serve. Federer had always been the model of poise, but in that moment, Djokovic's resilience was the decisive factor. If Federer Moments made tennis feel religious, Djokovic's greatness feels almost algorithmic: an optimisation problem solved in real time. And this makes some fans uneasy. We long for the illusion that genius is innate, ineffable, something you either have or don't. Djokovic demolished that idea. He is proof that greatness can be engineered by systematising improvement and controlling every variable. In a way, that is more radical—and more threatening to our romantic ideals—than Federer's effortless beauty. Yet Djokovic is also capable of moments that approximate transcendence, though they are built less from grace than from an almost masochistic determination. Think of his endless baseline rallies, the defensive slides into impossible retrievals, the patience that outlasts even the most brilliant aggression. If Federer offered an aesthetic of pure form, Djokovic offers an aesthetic of duration—of stamina and willpower stretched to their limit. This may be why Djokovic has never inspired the same collective swoon as Federer. The Federer narrative was perfect for the pre-digital, pre-analytic era: talent as a miracle. Djokovic's story belongs to a different age—one that is skeptical of miracles and more interested in process. We didn't watch him to be transported to a higher plane of beauty; we did so to witness what is possible when every piece of one's life is bent to a singular purpose. It is a less romantic vision, to be sure, but no less extraordinary. In the end, Djokovic's genius was that he made the unglamorous sublime. In his game, we saw not just inspiration but a demanding, almost intimidating proposition: greatness is not conferred by the gods. It is made, one grueling point at a time. His time may soon be up. It's my guess that, while Federer will remain the more beloved, Djokovic will be studied by every future pro as the model champion. Little to be learned from summer Tests There's a special kind of futility reserved for Ireland's summer rugby Tests. While France are off filling their depth pool against the All Blacks and England are battling it out with Argentina, we are beating Portugal 106-7. OK, you can only dance with the girls on the dancefloor, but that excuse diminishes when you take into account who decides which disco you go to. Nothing says rugby powerhouse like booking a warm-up match against a country whose entire backline doubles as the national sevens squad and whose loosehead prop probably owns the only scrum machine in Lisbon. Meanwhile, France are indulging in the kind of rugby sadomasochism that polishes a team into World Cup contenders. Even Wales are playing someone who can tackle back. But not us. No, Ireland will emerge from their annihilation of Portugal and Georgia declaring, with straight faces, that 'valuable lessons were learned". The only lesson is that you shouldn't schedule a Test series that sounds like a Eurovision semi-final line-up. By August, when France have battle hardened 'finishers' and England have steel, we'll have nothing but a spreadsheet of meaningless statistics. Dublin pessimism unfounded Spending a Saturday surrounded by old-school Dublin football types was incredibly revealing in just how incredibly pessimistic they have become about their Gaelic footballing future. Just two summers on from their last All-Ireland triumph - and ninth in a dozen years - and all of a sudden you'd swear they've endured six decades of famine and an outbreak of mass emigration. 'Nothing's coming through' and 'no manager could manage them' are the current refrains of resignation. I don't buy it. Maybe, later this month Kerry emerge as contenders for the outstanding team of this decade, but with the peloton so bunched that any one of eight teams are capable, and Dublin, in the right hands are surely in that conversation. Bottom line, the lads doth protest too much, methinks. PSG and Springboks innovate Kudos to PSG and the Springboks for innovative new restart tactics. At FIFA's Club World Cup in the US, the Paris side repeatedly booted the ball straight into touch deep in the corner of their opponents half in order to immediately implement their press. Meanwhile, South Africa and Rassie Erasmus were pulling the complete pee out of Italy (and World Rugby) by deliberately penalising themselves off restarts, fly-half Mannie Libbok chipping the ball directly to his own player instead of sending it the required ten metres. All to manufacture an opportunity to scrum. The purists were no doubt appalled, which can only be a good thing.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
The change de Minaur must make to take it up to tennis' best
The five-time major quarter-finalist's percentage of unreturned first serves for the tournament was only 34 per cent (73/212), which ranked equal-98th in the men's draw. Woodbridge spoke with a still-disappointed de Minaur in the hours after his four-set defeat to Djokovic. De Minaur's serve was among the topics. 'Alex was playing against a guy [Djokovic] who has adjusted his serve throughout his career and made it better – and that's the example you have to look at,' Woodbridge said. 'He's got a great team of people around him, got all the technology, and now it's time to go back and keep tweaking the technique. Loading 'He's got to rotate his shoulders, get his right shoulder back, and get more turn and torque. What he does is take the racquet head out to the right, and that opens him up, and he gets too front-on. 'That [results in] lack of control and trajectory. The best players have great shoulder rotation, hold it in there, and then they uncoil.' Respected Australian coach Craig O'Shannessy made the same observation about de Minaur's front-on service motion, and said fixing that was not about adding more power but instead would add much-needed serving accuracy. ATP Tour serving analysis last year of the top-20 men's players found that de Minaur was by far the least accurate in that group, based on placement in the service box. That continued at Wimbledon this year, where the Australian's serves went to the body, rather than the corners, about five times more often than Djokovic and Jannik Sinner. O'Shannessy, who previously worked with Djokovic, said that was an accuracy issue for de Minaur and not a deliberate strategy. 'Alex is hitting it in the strike zone [too often] … he's losing so many points because the opponent is ready for that,' O'Shannessy told this masthead. 'From a placement perspective, Novak is serving only [about] three per cent at the body, and everything else is an even mix, so it makes it almost impossible to do a game plan against him. 'Alex has to improve his technique. He has to stay sideways longer. The lower body's got to rotate and stop, and the upper body then receives that energy and throws that into the arm. He's over-rotating with [both], and then he's too front-on.' Djokovic boasts remarkable serving accuracy in 2025 and at this Wimbledon. Almost half Djokovic's serves on the deuce and advantage sides landed wide or down the T, compared to between two and four per cent to the body, according to IBM tracking data. De Minaur, on the other hand, had about 50 per cent down the T on each side at Wimbledon, but went wide on only 28 and 36 per cent of serves, respectively, on the advantage and deuce sides. Loading He was at 20 and 17 per cent to the body on the advantage and deuce sides, respectively. Interestingly, Carlos Alcaraz's percentage of serves to the body this event is even higher than de Minaur. However, Woodbridge said de Minaur should not beat himself up about the Djokovic defeat or become too preoccupied with his serving deficiencies. 'Alex is a legitimate top-10 player. The hardest part in this game is getting there, and then it's even harder to stay there – but he's proven he can do that,' Woodbridge said. 'I said to him [post-match], 'Don't you dare tell me that you're not good enough to be in this space. You're 10 times better a tennis player than I ever was, and a lot of us were, so take your strengths, keep them, and keep working on those small bits that can make you better'.'
The Age
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Age
The change de Minaur must make to take it up to tennis' best
The five-time major quarter-finalist's percentage of unreturned first serves for the tournament was only 34 per cent (73/212), which ranked equal-98th in the men's draw. Woodbridge spoke with a still-disappointed de Minaur in the hours after his four-set defeat to Djokovic. De Minaur's serve was among the topics. 'Alex was playing against a guy [Djokovic] who has adjusted his serve throughout his career and made it better – and that's the example you have to look at,' Woodbridge said. 'He's got a great team of people around him, got all the technology, and now it's time to go back and keep tweaking the technique. Loading 'He's got to rotate his shoulders, get his right shoulder back, and get more turn and torque. What he does is take the racquet head out to the right, and that opens him up, and he gets too front-on. 'That [results in] lack of control and trajectory. The best players have great shoulder rotation, hold it in there, and then they uncoil.' Respected Australian coach Craig O'Shannessy made the same observation about de Minaur's front-on service motion, and said fixing that was not about adding more power but instead would add much-needed serving accuracy. ATP Tour serving analysis last year of the top-20 men's players found that de Minaur was by far the least accurate in that group, based on placement in the service box. That continued at Wimbledon this year, where the Australian's serves went to the body, rather than the corners, about five times more often than Djokovic and Jannik Sinner. O'Shannessy, who previously worked with Djokovic, said that was an accuracy issue for de Minaur and not a deliberate strategy. 'Alex is hitting it in the strike zone [too often] … he's losing so many points because the opponent is ready for that,' O'Shannessy told this masthead. 'From a placement perspective, Novak is serving only [about] three per cent at the body, and everything else is an even mix, so it makes it almost impossible to do a game plan against him. 'Alex has to improve his technique. He has to stay sideways longer. The lower body's got to rotate and stop, and the upper body then receives that energy and throws that into the arm. He's over-rotating with [both], and then he's too front-on.' Djokovic boasts remarkable serving accuracy in 2025 and at this Wimbledon. Almost half Djokovic's serves on the deuce and advantage sides landed wide or down the T, compared to between two and four per cent to the body, according to IBM tracking data. De Minaur, on the other hand, had about 50 per cent down the T on each side at Wimbledon, but went wide on only 28 and 36 per cent of serves, respectively, on the advantage and deuce sides. Loading He was at 20 and 17 per cent to the body on the advantage and deuce sides, respectively. Interestingly, Carlos Alcaraz's percentage of serves to the body this event is even higher than de Minaur. However, Woodbridge said de Minaur should not beat himself up about the Djokovic defeat or become too preoccupied with his serving deficiencies. 'Alex is a legitimate top-10 player. The hardest part in this game is getting there, and then it's even harder to stay there – but he's proven he can do that,' Woodbridge said. 'I said to him [post-match], 'Don't you dare tell me that you're not good enough to be in this space. You're 10 times better a tennis player than I ever was, and a lot of us were, so take your strengths, keep them, and keep working on those small bits that can make you better'.'
