Former Serena Williams coach says Novak Djokovic should have been better

Djokovic has won 24 Grand Slam titles.
Tennis player Novak Djokovic
Tennis player Novak Djokovic / Yasser Bakhsh/GettyImages
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Most might think that Novak Djokovic could not have done much more than what he has done in his career. 24 Grand Slams, 40 Masters 1000 titles, and one Olympic gold medal is more than anyone has done. Yet, a former Serena Williams coach seems to think that the Serb could have done even more.

That coach is not just anyone either. He is Patrick Mouratoglou, who helped Serena Williams win a bunch of major titles and who also accidentally got Simona Halep suspended when he gave the player some tainted collagen. Still, he has been a respected coach and tennis commentator for decades.

In a recent talk with Talking Tennis, Mouratoglou had a respectful way of saying Djokovic is the best ever, but not the best he could have been. The issue the coach has is that during rallies, Djokovic often was not aggressive enough, at least in the view of Mouratoglou. Instead, the Serb relied almost too much on his ability to cover every corner of the court and keep rallies alive with his incredible capability to return nearly any ball.

Patrick Mouratoglou thinks Novak Djokovic should have won even more

That is likely a bit too nit-picky by Mouratoglou, but again, he probably wasn't trying to be overly critical of Djokovic. His words might also give tennis fans something to think about. Novak Djokovic achieved more than any other player, but he might have been able to accomplish more.

Mouratoglou said, "What I think he could have done better, which is tough to say because he’s the greatest of all time, I feel sometimes he’s not aggressive enough in his game. He’s probably the guy who covered the court in the best possible way, not only because of his movement but also because of the fact that moving at a very high pace to the sides, he was able to counterpunch."

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While Djokovic did win those 24 major titles, he also lost 13. Of course, most of those were to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, which are clearly forgivable losses. He also lost to Carlos Alcaraz twice. In other words, when Djokovic did lose a Grand Slam final, he was not losing to players who were not also highly successful.

There is also no guarantee that had Djokovic been more aggressive in rallies against players such as Federer and Nadal he would have won. They could have also been more aggressive. Maybe we should just respect the fact that the Serb won as much as he did.

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