Marián Vajda (; born 24 March 1965) is a Slovak professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

coach and former player. He is the former head coach of

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...

, coaching Djokovic almost his entire professional career, winning 85 titles together (out of the 92 won by Djokovic). Vajda is the most successful coach in the history of tennis in terms of Grand Slam titles winning 20

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

trophies with Novak Djokovic.

Career

Vajda was born in

Považská Bystrica Považská Bystrica (; german: Waagbistritz; hu, Vágbeszterce) is a town in northwestern Slovakia. It is located on the Váh river, around 30 km from the city of Žilina. It belongs to Upper Váh region of tourism. Profile Považská B ...

. He was a member of the Olympic Team of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, and in 1992 he competed in the Olympic Games of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, being eliminated in the

first round First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

Gilad Bloom Gilad Bloom ( he, גלעד בלום, born 1 March 1967) is a former professional tennis player from Israel. Bloom trained at the Israel Tennis Centers. His career-high rankings were World No. 61 in singles (in 1990) and World No. 62 in doubles ( ...

. He reached the third round of the

1991 French Open The 1991 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 27 May until 9 June. It was the 95th staging of the French Open, and the second Gra ...

, won two singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 34 in September 1987. Vajda is a former captain of the Slovakia Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams. Vajda was the coach of

Karol Kučera Karol Kučera (born 4 March 1974) is a retired ATP professional male tennis player from Slovakia. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 6 in September 1998, reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open the same year. In 20 ...

from 2001 to 2005. Vajda has been the coach of

from 2006 until 2017, then again from 2018 to 2022. From December 2013 until 2016,

Boris Becker Boris Franz Becker (, ; born 22 November 1967) is a German former world No. 1 tennis player. Becker was successful from the start of his career, winning the Wimbledon Championships at the age of 17. He ultimately won six Grand Slam singles tit ...

was Djokovic's head coach with Vajda remaining part of Djokovic's team. For his achievements with the Serbian tennis player, Vajda won the award for best coach by the

Olympic Committee of Serbia The Olympic Committee of Serbia ( sr, / ) is the National Olympic Committee representing Serbia. It organizes the country's representatives at the Olympic Games and other multisport events. Members of the committee are 47 sports federations, wh ...

in both 2010 and 2011. In 2018, Vajda won the ATP Coach of the Year award. Vajda started coaching fellow Slovak

Alex Molčan Alex Molčan (born 1 December 1997) is a Slovak professional tennis player. Molčan has a career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 38 achieved on 23 May 2022. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of No. 268 achieved on 14 June 2021 ...

in May 2022.

Career finals

Singles (2 titles, 2 runners-up)

References

External links

* * * * * * 1965 births Living people Novak Djokovic coaches Czechoslovak male tennis players Olympic tennis players of Czechoslovakia People from Považská Bystrica Slovak male tennis players Slovak tennis coaches Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Competitors at the 1986 Goodwill Games Goodwill Games medalists in tennis Friendship Games medalists in tennis {{Slovakia-tennis-bio-stub