Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic’s has stopped working with his ‘spiritual guru’ Pepe Imaz as his coach Marijan Vajda feels its a distraction.
The 44-year-old Imaz, a former Spanish tennis player, uses a philosophy of Amor Y Paz (Love and Peace) as the overriding factors when coaching at his tennis school in Marbella.
In 2016, after Djokovic’s win at the French Open, Imaz became part of the Serbian’s support team.
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However, during this partnership Novak Djokovic’s career took a sudden and dramatic downturn, going from one of the most dominant athletes in tennis to hardly winning tournaments.
Speaking to Slovakia’s sport.sk, Djokovic’s coach Vajda said: “Yes, I wanted him to finish working with Imaz.
“First I wanted to talk Novak today in person.
“Second, I wanted to make a plan and rules for the following months,” said Vajda. “We were all together in Barcelona, we sat and talked. I told him that I did not like people from outside the team to influence him, as was the case before.
“Tennis cannot be based on philosophy. It is a man vs man sport. If you want to be the best, you have to do repetitions in training, play games and be strong mentally.
“When you see the opponent, you must focus on where to hit the ball, not think about Buddha.”
Novak Djokovic has won 13 Grand Slam singles titles in his career, the last being his Wimbledon win over South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in the final.