Novak Djokovic has added an extra tournament to his schedule ahead of the French Open, but respected coach Patrick Mouratoglou believes the Serbian great may have made a mistake with his initial decisions in the European clay court season.<\/p>\n
Djokovic\u2019s defeat against Alejandro Tabilo in Monte Carlo and his loss against Matteo Arnaldi in his first match at the Madrid Open suggested the 24-time Grand Slam champion was a long way from the form he needs to be in to challenge for the title at the French Open.<\/p>\n
The Serbian legend pulled out of this week\u2019s Italian Open as he opted to take a break from tennis, but he has entered the lower-ranking ATP 250 tournament in Geneva next week as he looks to fine-tune his game ahead of the second Grand Slam of the season in Paris.<\/p>\n
Now Mouratoglou, who is the coach of four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka and former coach of Serena Williams, has suggested Djokovic was wrong to play in Monte Carlo and Madrid, as his motivation levels were clearly lacking for those tournaments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very surprised watching Novak compete in Monte Carlo and Madrid. Not by the level, we all know what he\u2019s capable of. But by the attitude,\u201d Mouratoglou wrote on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n
Novak Djokovic \u2018losing his aura\u2019 as one key reason for his struggles should not be \u2018underestimated\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray make major decision on their partnership ahead of French Open<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHe just didn\u2019t look like he wanted to win. He didn\u2019t even look like he cared to win.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, he can play much better, he\u2019s Novak Djokovic, but he didn\u2019t look physically ready or mentally engaged. And for a player like him, if the motivation isn\u2019t there, there\u2019s really no point in being on the court. I\u2019ve been saying this for a long time now: motivation is everything for Novak.<\/p>\n \u201cHe doesn\u2019t need to play a full clay season. But some matches, yes, with the right mindset and clear intention to win. Because nothing replaces match play. You don\u2019t just show up at a Grand Slam and expect everything to fall into place magically.<\/p>\n \u201cHis decision to play Geneva now makes sense. He wants to feel that winning rhythm again, even just a little, before stepping into Paris. The big question is: will it be enough?\u201d<\/p>\n Mouratoglou\u2019s pessimism over Djokovic\u2019s French Open hopes is contrasted by his belief that the soon-to-be 38-year-old is now undisputedly the greatest tennis player of all-time.<\/p>\n Djokovic is set to finish his career with more Grand Slam titles than any male player, with Mouratoglou suggesting the debate over who should be recognised as the greatest player of all-time is over.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember the first time when Novak came onto the tour and Rafa and Roger were winning everything,\u201d Mouratoglou told Tennis365.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the other guys were thinking these two are unbeatable and then this young guy from Serbia comes onto the screen and he is about to play Roger in one of the first rounds of the Grand Slam.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was getting interviewed before the match and Novak said \u2018I\u2019m going to beat him\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cStraight away, the reaction to these comments was really negative and people were asking who was this guy who thinks he can beat the great Federer.<\/p>\n \u201cThen another journalist said to Djokovic that he sounded a bit cocky and I remember his response. He was polite and said: \u2018I\u2019m not cocky, I\u2019m just confident in my abilities\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, he went on to prove it. Time and again. He became world No 1, he beat both Roger and Rafa time and again and ended up with the best record of the three.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t please people when you say he is the best because the other two are more liked than Novak, but this is undeniable now. He is the greatest of all time.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you look at Novak\u2019s game and compare it to Roger and Rafa, you say how can this guy with this game have a better record than the other two, but it is because he is the best of all time mentally.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t teach confidence like he had. You just have it and this is a big topic in my book. It is not a question of teaching confidence, but you can do things to build it in a person.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can\u2019t come from someone else. No one can give you the confidence and it doesn\u2019t come by chance. It\u2019s something you earn by doing the right things every day.<\/p>\n \u201cYou look at what he is doing every day in his life and it gives Novak so much confidence. He builds his life around being the best he can be and he is the only one doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n Mouratoglou\u2019s new book Champion Mindset<\/em> is now available, as he reflects on his own battle with self-doubt and confidence issues and how he turned his life around.<\/strong><\/p>\n READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic has \u2018one big advantage\u2019 over Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in GOAT battle<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic attitude questioned by leading coach as he prepares to return to action<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Novak Djokovic has added an extra tournament to his schedule ahead of the French Open, but respected coach Patrick Mouratoglou believes the Serbian great may have made a mistake with his initial decisions in the European clay court season. Djokovic\u2019s defeat against Alejandro Tabilo in Monte Carlo and his loss against Matteo Arnaldi in his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}