Mental Double-Edge

“I sincerely hope he can bring that mental edge because he recognizes the situations that one top player is facing, especially during the Grand Slams and the pressures and expectations. That’s what we’re hoping to work on and improve the most. And, of course, a couple of other elements of my game.”

"Mental edge." "Mental" seems to be Novak Djokovic's go-to vocabulary word of 2014. How does a player who was, until very recently, ranked No. 1 in the world, expert vanquisher of match points against him, and six-time Grand Slam champion need someone with fewer career accomplishments than he help him with the game's mental approach?

During Novak's ascendence to the very top of the tennis world, he received criticism for many different things: his cocksure attitude, his brash confidence, and his annoyingly accurate impersonations left a bad taste in the many mouths of the sport's traditionalists. (I've always loved and appreciated his early behavior.) The abundance of loathing he garnered from the lovers of the Federer-Nadal rivalry was even further augmented by his ability to thwart their battles for ATP supremacy.

The singular on-court aspect of Novak that was easy to bash, however, was his lacking mental fortitude. For someone who talked a big game and backed it up quite often, Novak was horrible when the chips were down. King of Retirements and master of double-faulting break point down, his lack of fight that his contemporaries had, specifically Nadal and Andy Murray, was his Achilles' Heel throughout his Slam-less 2009 and 2010 seasons.

But that all changed, starting with his back-from-the-brink win against Roger Federer at the 2010 U.S. Open semifinals, saving two match points. His next intermediary achievement was leading Team Serbia to their first ever Davis Cup victory. Those two shows of determination catapulted him to one of the greatest seasons in tennis history. In 2011, he took home three Slams, five Masters titles, and achieved 41 consecutive victories and never looked back. He was 6-0 against Nadal on all surfaces (and all in finals) and once again was left for dead against Federer in the U.S. Open semis before saving two more match points, one of which was eradicated on one of the most memorable service returns ever struck.

As if that wasn't enough to prove his fortitude, he played an epic 2012 Australian Open final, Novak's seventh straight meeting against Nadal at that stage, and outlasted one of the games greatest ever competitors, both physically and mentally, in a nearly six-hour slugfest. He didn't sustain this extraordinarily high level of success throughout the remainder of 2012 and 2013, but who could? He was consistently in the mix late in majors and held the top spot of the rankings for over 100 weeks, a benchmark only the legends reach.

In 2013, Novak found himself losing a little more frequently, both on big and small stages. Mental lapses became a bit more commonplace, most infamously during his Roland Garros semifinal against Rafa when, up a break in the fifth set, he ran into the net, losing the point on an easy putaway. Game, set, match, and year to Rafael Nadal. Djokovic was unable to bring it against his rivals for the remainder of the Grand Slam season.

Okay, so Novak was slightly below his ridiculously high par. No big deal. He won a ton of nail-biters over the years, those things are bound to even out in a sport with such small margins. On top of that, he managed to salvage at least some of his 2013 with a blazing fall, winning every match, including two routine victories over Nadal, to close out the season. No need to panic, right?

Which brings us to the hire of new head coach Boris Becker, tennis legend and owner of the proprietary "mental edge" that Novak believes will help him in 2014. There were jokes and laughs and doubts about Becker's ability to coach at this level, but Novak had his reasons. Novak, the most complete player in the game, likes to improve and add new tricks and he believes Becker will teach him to be more aggressive on serve and in the forecourt, all while giving him that oft-cited "mental edge."

We saw Becker's influence on Novak's game at their first tournament together, the Australian Open. Then in the quarterfinals, while involved in another five-set overtime tussle with Stanislas Wawrinka, his abilities to close failed him in a big way. He went up a quick break in the fifth set only to immediately dump serve on four careless forehand errors. He failed to convert break points in the pivotal seventh game of the set. Most egregiously, he horrendously shanked an easy forehand volley down match point. The one part of Novak's game he was supposedly improving deserted him for one crucial moment.

That being said, I am not blaming Boris Becker. He didn't hit that sitter volley for Novak. I'm not blaming the tactical choice to serve-and-volley, either. Novak has been implementing serve-and-volley throughout many matches in 2013 and the play got him the result he wanted, until it got to the "volley" portion of the strategy. I'm more concerned with what was going on in Novak's brain while it was sending signals to his right arm and hand, lungs, and legs.

All of this talk about Novak trying to find the "mental edge" over his rivals got me wondering if there is an "edge" to find. The "mental edge" is something that comes to you. But it doesn't come in your dreams at night in a 'Eureka!' fashion. It doesn't come on the practice courts with a brand name coach at your helm. It comes right at the exact moment you need it to. It comes when you blast a backhand down the line to set up an easy crosscourt backhand winner against your chief rival at a tournament he won eight times in a row. It comes to you when your opponent comes to the net on a great approach only to be felled by your brilliant passing shot. It comes to you in a single gutsy forehand while emotionally vulnerable and down match point, with the Greatest Of All Time serving on the other side of the net.

Whatever "mental edge" Novak Djokovic is looking for, he may not find it in Boris Becker. It comes and goes, flitting between the guys at the top, and it takes experience before it finds you again. Rafa regained the "mental edge" on Novak after seven consecutive heartbreaking losses. Wawrinka may have found the elusive "mental edge" last summer in Flushing Meadows. At this moment, Novak is overthinking in his search for it. He needs to let the "mental edge" come to him. Boris Becker may yet be a great addition to his team, but if Novak thinks that Becker will provide the cure to his recent Grand Slam disappointments, he may find himself hunting for the "edge" in vain.

(Link: a great live analysis of Novak Djokovic vs. Stanislas Wawrinka by @juanjosetennis of The Changeover)