The ATP’s latest “Uncovered” features Marian Vajda, Novak Djokovic’s coach and “second father.”

Perhaps the deep personal bond between the two explains why Marian is comfortable sharing coaching duties with Todd Martin, who joined Team Djokovic around the time of this year’s US Open.

Novak spoke recently about how the Vajda/Martin tag-team works (Quotes via The Independent):

“He [Martin] has a lot of obligations,” Djokovic said. “He’s still very active and he’s a father of three kids. It’s hard to find the right times, but we’re doing well now. We try to make compromises over who is going to work with me where. Generally I think it will be Todd I’ll work with when I go to the States and Marian when I’m in Europe”.

Nole says Martin wields his own paternal influence:

“When I get frustrated I throw my racket. Then I look at Todd and I’m kind of scared about what his reaction might be, what he’s going to say. But he always says: ‘The shot you made before the mistake was good. So keep it going.’ He always tries to find the positive in everything. I think that’s a great thing about him. He’s going to bring a lot of freshness to the team”.

So it’s a little like shared custody?

Novak Djokovic is playing this week in Basel. He faces Jan Hernych in the second round.

Tags: ATP, Djokovic, Marian Vajda, tennis
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