MELBOURNE, Australia -- He went last year from the scourge of the men's tennis tour to the biggest curiosity in the sport in the space of a few months. Now everybody has an opinion about Novak Djokovic and his chances of winning a record seventh Australian Open title in 11 days.
Tennis Channel analyst Martina Navratilova says he looks "too skinny" and questions if he'll have the stamina to survive these two weeks. Boris Becker departed as Djokovic's coach in December, saying he didn't work hard enough near the end of last year but was confident Djokovic could turn it around. The oddsmakers have agreed after watching Djokovic start 2017 with an avenging title win over Andy Murray in Doha, and now, an impressive first-round victory over always-tricky veteran Fernando Verdasco here in Melbourne.
Djokovic, 29, has still never explicitly said he had an existential crisis in the second half of 2016 after he finally won the French Open. Not exactly. But he certainly looked like he had some tortured "Who am I? Is this all there is?" moments. He was shocked by Sam Querrey in the third-round upset at Wimbledon that no one saw coming and had an on-court crying jag after losing his opening match at the Rio Olympics in August. In September, Djokovic tore open his shirt in frustration during his semifinal win at the US Open -- "You know, it felt nice," he said -- then ripped his shirt in half again during an October loss in Shanghai, where he also smashed a racket.
Still, nothing has stoked the tittering about how Djokovic was losing the plot back then -- or how he just as abruptly may be recapturing his game now -- as much as something that happened at the Paris Masters in November. Murray was breathing down Djokovic's neck to end his 122-week reign at No. 1, but Djokovic's usual coaches, Becker and Marian Vajda, were conspicuously missing despite what was at stake.
In Djokovic's player's box instead was a little-known former Spanish player named Pepe Imaz, whom a German publication eventually nicknamed the "Cuddle Guru" because of Imaz's offbeat theories about giving "absolute priority to the person's well-being, feelings and emotion." His beliefs were about building better tennis players through his mantra "Paz y Amor" -- Spanish for "Peace and Love."
Meaning there was nothing was wrong with Djokovic or his game that a hug couldn't cure?
"I don't know where you heard that he's a guru, first of all," Djokovic protested in Paris, when asked about Imaz. (The term actually appeared in a tweet on ATP Tour-affiliated website TV Tennis, among other places.)
Pressed again to describe their working relationship, Djokovic said, "I'm not going to go into details, because there is no sense. I know certain media is trying to find a story here in calling him guru. I'm not going to give any room for speculations anymore. He's been there, and he's part of the coaching team, and that's all."
People curious to know more about Imaz quickly tracked down a two-hour, 10-minute online video on Imaz's website that was filmed in August. It shows Djokovic, his brother, Marko, and Daniela Hantuchova, a former top-10 player who weathered some difficult years herself, sitting on a dais in front of a conference-room crowd at the Puente Romano resort in Marbella, Spain, where Imaz runs his academy.
Imaz cuts a striking figure with his chiseled features, tousled hair and deep tan offset by white pants and a half-buttoned white shirt. He speaks in a breathy, almost trance-like voice about how "any of you here are amazing and divine. Your being, this soul, this energy is divine. But you have forgotten this is what you are." He addresses the corrupting "lies! LIES! Lies!" society teaches us that can make us act unkindly or foolishly toward ourselves. He asks everyone to keep their eyes closed throughout so their minds can "hear" better as he leads them through a section of the program that is part guided meditation and part sermon. Like the others, Djokovic complies.
At about the 57-minute mark of the video, Djokovic is asked to make a few remarks to the attendees in the room, and he echoes Imaz's themes.
"We are all looking for love, happiness and harmony," he tells the crowd. "We need to be able to look inward and to establish this connection with a divine light."
Not long after the video surfaced, a Djokovic fan started a Change.org petition urging Djokovic to "dump" Imaz now.
Djokovic has always been a searcher and a tinkerer. But even for him, this latest foray is a stretch. In the past, he's proselytized about how his gluten-free fish-and-vegetable diet changed his life. He's talked about his use of data analysis to scout opponents, and how sitting in oxygen-rich hyperbaric chambers and cryotherapy has helped his postmatch recovery. But his association with Imaz seemed even more curious when he got prickly about discussing it. It was questioned again when the German publication Bild ran an unattributed report saying Becker gave Djokovic an ultimatum last fall: Choose between Imaz or me.
Now look: Becker is gone.
Djokovic has disputed the suggestion that Imaz was just added to his team last fall. He insisted the Spaniard has been working with him in the background for a couple years (which would coincide not only with Novak's great run at the top, but the time period in which Marko said his work with Imaz helped cure him of depression over how his own playing career hadn't taken off). The 42-year-old Imaz was once a top-200 pro player but writes on his website that he quit after putting too much pressure on himself and eventually suffered from bulimia.
But what were Novak's challenges in a year he tore to seven titles, two of them Slams? Djokovic has said winning the French Open, the last major he needed to complete a career Grand Slam, "Probably took more out of me than I realized." He has still not explained the "personal problems" he mentioned at Wimbledon, but Becker took pains in December to dispute rampant rumors that marital problems were to blame.
A source in contact with the Djokovic camp says Imaz is not here in Melbourne, but he is still working with the world No. 2. Coincidentally or not, Djokovic has -- for months now -- been parroting Imaz's themes of harmony and love -- and how being No. 1 again isn't everything. In Doha, Djokovic spoke about playing as "one" with the gusting wind. On arrival at the Australian Open, he stressed the most important thing for him is to strike a balance in life. He then characterized last year's challenges as "a blessing."
All of it will look like just another Djokovic foray into something unconventional if he returns to mowing down the rest of the tour again starting this fortnight. So far in 2017, the early returns for Djokovic -- especially that win over Murray this month in Doha -- are encouraging. "Couldn't ask for a better start," he agrees.