Patrick Mouratoglou has been in tennis for many years, and the coach has seen how Novak Djokovic backed up bold claims from earlier in his career.
Novak Djokovic currently sits at 24 Grand Slams, but many years ago, the Serbian was at zero. Despite being at number zero at the time, Djokovic strongly believed that he could dethrone both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
It wasn't well received, as many called him cocky for his comments, but Djokovic knew better. The Serbian knew that if he worked as hard as he could and believed in himself, he'd at least give himself a chance to do so, and he did.
In a recent video posted on his Instagram, the French coach spoke about his belief and the importance of believing in yourself generally.
A lot of players don't believe that they can beat Rafa and Novak at all. Some others think they cannot beat them in a Grand Slam. So what is impossible to envision is impossible to do. It's as simple as that. And the champions are able to not foresee any limits within themselves. That's the big difference.
In fact, one of Mouratoglous's favorite stories to tell to players is how Djokovic actually backed up his words. Being cocky and talking big is generally frowned upon, but that's because most people could never live it up to. If you do, well, that's another story.
And I always tell this story that when Roger and Rafa were dominating the men's tour outrageously, I had discussion with most of the top tens and they were saying to me that it was impossible to win a slam in their mind and a young guy, 19 years old suddenly came out and said publicly I'm going to beat them.
And this guy was Novak Djokovic in the tennis world said what a shame how this guy can be so cocky and things like this. It's not cockiness, it's confidence and he happened to do it not because he said it but because he deeply believed it. A lot of.