Novak Djokovic is pleased to hear Ivan Lendl describing the No. 1 as a benchmark as the former star returns to coach Andy Murray.
Lendl told British media that Djokovic's winning run at the majors was an exceptional accomplishment, and stopping it was a goal for his renewed pairing with Murray.
"Ivan is one of the legends of our sport and, of course, he’s been a great rival with my coach Boris Becker], so it’s interesting,” Djokovic [told press at an exhibition event this week. “I don’t think it’s a surprising decision from Andy because when Ivan was his coach Andy won a couple of Grand Slam events, won an Olympic gold medal, made the best results of his career, so I think it was a logical move for him to take and they’re a good team, so it’s going to be an interesting tournament."
Djokovic and Murray, who will be the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds at Wimbledon, played each other in the final of the French Open. Djokovic played down speculation of re-match, noting, "I know there’s been a lot of talks about a potential match-up between Andy and me, with Ivan coming to his team, but... We’ve got to be respectful to everybody competing in Wimbledon, more than 120 players, so we’ll take it step-by-step."
Djokovic, who is coached by six-time Grand Slam champion Boris Becker, sees having former champions coaching current players as a positive. Murray's meeting with Milos Raonic in the final of Queen's also saw Lendl and John McEnroe in the coaching box against each other, with McEnroe working with Raonic through Wimbledon.
"I was joking around with my team that they’ve got to extend the locker room for the legends," Djokovic said. "Having all this rivalry on the coaching side is pretty good for our sport. It attracts a lot of attention.''