Novak Djokovic Hires Andre Agassi As New Coach

World number two Novak Djokovic said Andre Agassi will be his new coach after the Serb lost in the Italian Open final to Alexander Zverev.

The 12-time Grand Slam winner parted company with his entire coaching team earlier in May.

Former world number one Agassi will be with Djokovic in Paris for the French Open, which starts on 28 May.

It will be recalled Djokovic had said he was looking for another so-called supercoach after sacking his entire coaching crew.

Until his departure at the end of last season, Boris Becker managed to improve Djokovic’s conversion rate in major factors. Now Agassi has all the credentials and experience to help Djokovic – the world No 2 and reigning French Open champion – in his quest to regain former glories.

While Agassi’s early career was more turbulent than Djokovic’s, he is well placed to understand the feeling of lassitude that can grip a tennis champion after years of achievement.

Agassi climbed to world No 1 for the first time in 1995, and won Olympic gold in Atlanta the following year. But his ranking slipped to No 141 in 1997 as his marriage to actress Brooke Shields began to fail. This was also the year when he tested positive for crystal meth, although he escaped without penalty after claiming that the ingestion had been accidental.