Jan de Witt came with Nikoloz Basilashvili to the ATP-World-Tour-500-Tournament in Vienna. The Georgian is on his way to the top of the world rankings, the German coach is very satisfied with the development of the cooperation so far. A conversation.
tennisnet: Mr. de Witt, of course we have to start with Werder Bremen. You are close to the club, Werder is currently well ahead in the Bundesliga table. Why?
Jan de Witt: We started the season pretty well. And I think you can see at the moment that the team is about to take the next step. So not only to play good football, if the situation allows it, but also to be prepared not to play as attractive as on Saturday on Schalke. And simply not to offer an opponent like Schalke, who doesn’t have the ball and actually doesn’t want to play football, either. I certainly liked the way Florian Kohfeld hired the team.
tennisnet: You also have professional connections with Werder Bremen. Which one?
de Witt: I talk to Florian Kohlfeld about a lot of things, and of course I’m not the one who gives him tips about football. Flo knows all about that himself. But we talk a lot about structures, about approaches that lead to a greater probability of success. And I have also played this role at Werder Bremen. I have tried to offer the people in the club the view from the outside, from someone who also comes from sport. I’ve looked at the structures where health and athletics are concerned, including the training of young players who are going to play in the first team at some point. So I offered to think about where you could do something better.
tennisnet: If Uli Hoeneß calls and asks you to do the same, would you not take off?
de Witt: Yes, I wouldn’t do that. This means that Uli can call him quietly, I would have a friendly chat with him, but then I would cancel him friendly. because what I am doing there with Werder is a matter close to his heart.
tennisnet: To tennis. Their collaboration with Nikoloz Basilashvili started sensationally with the victory in Hamburg.
de Witt: I have to disagree with you because we didn’t really get off to a great start. We lost eight of the first twelve matches we played together. The content of the work was very constructive from day one, we made immediate progress, but it took six to eight weeks for this to be reflected in the results.
tennisnet: Well then again quite fast.
de Witt: Well, not a long time actually in tennis. In other sports it is. Take a look at football for example, Alexander Nouri in Ingolstadt has lost the first four matches. It looks pretty bad there. But well, we have improved quite quickly. But in Hamburg we played seven matches in nine days, of which we could have lost five. That was all with a lot of emotion, with a lot of fighting spirit, not only with playful means, where Niko showed that he can win matches even if they don’t go well. And a lot of progress came after that.
tennisnet: What exactly are these advances?
de Witt: Niko strikes out differently, he returns differently. We have found a slightly different approach against most opponents, but the approach of course remains that we use Niko’s uncanny strengths, his speed and his power. But maybe with a more patient approach. I don’t have to shoot a hole through my opponent in every rally.
tennisnet: Before that, you coached Gilles Simon, a completely different player, who was more a tactician. A difficult change for you too?
de Witt: This is very demanding. Also because I believe that Niko and Gilles are very far apart in how they have to be led and what the general approach is. Basically, we trainers must have respect for the fact that we are not capable of solving every situation. And that also means not being the right coach for a player in every situation. If you now work as long as I do at this high level, then of course we also have a healthy self-confidence. I know what I’m doing. And I know what this player needs to succeed. But that doesn’t mean that I’m able to convey that to the player.
tennisnet: How did you come to a cooperation with Nikoloz Basilashvili?
de Witt: We played against him twice, in Shanghai and at the French Open. And we trained relatively often together, because the handling is already very respectful on the tour. Still, you have people you’d rather practice with. And Niko was one of them. Günter Bresnik would say, “He’s good for me. You can always see what’s going on with Niko. And he can also take a clear message. Niko prefers that to someone just talking about it. I wasn’t the only one who saw him play tennis. And I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do with Niko. What happens now isn’t a surprise to me. What’s surprising is how fast it all comes. To play in the final in Beijing against del Potro and to broadcast from the beginning to the end, I’m blowing you away – the development has gone very fast.
tennisnet: Now your protégé is someone who rarely shows emotions on the court. Is that the plan?
de Witt: I think Niko has calmed down. Our approach is: We do our own thing. And the kid’s all there, doing his thing. With Niko it is the case that he also needs a certain fault tolerance, he makes mistakes as offensively as he plays. The emotions are of course there, and professional sport is all about dealing with these emotions. Sometimes I would also like him to show a positive reaction to good points. But you really have to praise him. The boy’s incredibly good when it comes to the sausage. And this has something to do with the fact that Niko can handle his emotions very well in these situations. He just won’t let himself be pulled down if he played two points in the tiebreak, where you think you didn’t have to try to hit the line now. And that’s what we want to cultivate, so that one day we’ll be able to do it in grand finals as well: To do our thing.
tennisnet: Nobody does his thing better than Novak Djokovic at the moment. Is he invincible right now?
de Witt: I don’t think so. I still don’t think it’s as good as when it was best. Sure, he’s on his way there. I think Nole can play even better than we’ve seen now. But how to beat him, I’d rather keep that to myself. I already beat Djokovic with three different players. But it’s just an extremely difficult task.