"Novak Djokovic made himself into a champion" - Serena Williams' ex-coach Rick Macci details the Serb's key to success

Serena Williams' former coach Rick Macci remarked that Novak Djokovic made himself into a champion and revealed what he believes are the secrets to the Serb's success. In a recent episode of the podcast “Match Point Canada”, Rick Macci touched upon a few key factors that contributed to Djokovic's remarkable success in tennis so far.

The 68-year-old said that Djokovic’s primary goal was to improve himself, and he did so by altering his diet in addition to undergoing sinus surgery. The American coach further added that the World No. 1 did not just hit the ground running and start dominating the court. He stated that Djokovic played in a difficult era and rose to become the champion that he is today. Macci said:

“There’s many secrets you know. First off, long ago his number one goal was to always get better, he changed his diet, he had sinus surgery, [and] he made himself into a champion. Because early on, he would like to retire a lot, so it wasn’t like he came right on the tour and dominated. His dominance has been really since 2008 or whatever and he’s going against you know Rafa and Fed, and Murray was still in there, so he did it in a tough era”

Talking about Djokovic's mental resilience, Macci said that people are completely unaware of the dedication and hard work he puts into bringing his A-game to the court. He added:

“First off, mentally he’s a different animal and that’s always the first that people have to understand when they look at greatness. I’m sure when he’s retired the stories that he will tell about going in the mountains, hanging out with the wolves, all the meditation he does, the visualization. People have no idea what this guy does. All I see is what they see on television. But behind the curtain of greatness, people just have no idea, you know we might have a little better idea but this is a unique person in that regard. So mentally it will be interesting to see how he elaborates on all that stuff”

“The guy is made of rubber”- Rick Macci on Novak Djokovic

Djokovic at the 2023 ATP Finals

In the same podcast, Serena Williams’ ex-coach Rick Macci elaborated on one of the most important aspects of tennis - movement, which Novak Djokovic is adept at. He likened the 24-time Grand Slam winner to a rubber band, highlighting his impressive movement and flexibility at 36 years old. The American coach also outlined how players like Djokovic and Alcaraz can convert a difficult ball into a winner. He stated:

“Number two, the movement, the guy is made of rubber, he’s a rubber band man, so what that means is once he gets going, he can counter punch quality after quality and you see that in Alcaraz. They can counter off a quality [shot] better than anybody. So that’s another thing, while the rest of the world might chip it or lob it, he can hit a winner. That’s what people don’t understand, these minute-level details”

Novak Djokovic is set to represent Serbia in the finals of the 2023 Davis Cup this week (November 21 - 26) in Malaga, Spain.