What a metamorphosis, between the David Goffin of the start of the season and the current copy. It seems a long time ago when the Liégeois struggled to get through the first round of a tournament. A situation that we decipher in the company of two of his former coaches, Thierry Van Cleemput and Réginald Willems, as well as former player Olivier Rochus who worked with him for a long time in the national team.
A real hard worker
While some used all their energy to decry his performances or even outright to announce it “finished”, especially on social networks where he took a lot of the pear, the Liègeois continued to work. Discreetly. Goffin, and everyone agrees, is a real hard worker. “I have always believed in David and Germain (Editor’s note: Gigounon, his coach), starts Thierry Van Cleemput. He is someone who likes to work a lot, it has never been his problem. Rather, it was confidence that failed him. He has now come out of his difficult period where the lack of rhythm and matches was felt. He found the grinta. He wants to fight and he is achieving a great challenge.”
Goffin’s coach from April 2014 to January 2019, Thierry Van Cleemput obviously knows the Liégeois very well. “I always hoped for his return to the highest level and I know he was capable of it. This return is the mark of a great player. People were tough on him, Belgium is a bit too much a nation of supporters of victory.”
Finally rid of his physical glitches
To be 100% in your head and… in your body is essential to string together high-level encounters. Goffin has long dragged on with a knee injury. It is for this reason that he had ended his 2021 season in September. This premature stop will have allowed him to regain full possession of his means. No more straps, the Belgian number 1 is rid of his physical glitches. And this, even if he still had problems with his back, in Rome, then with the hip, during Roland-Garros. “David is a player who has had very few injuries in his career, and most of them were of rather accidental origin such as the bullet in the eye (Editor’s note: in the semi-finals in Rotterdam in 2019) or his ankle which is caught in the tarpaulin at Roland-Garros (Editor’s note: in 2017). He has never been confronted with more annoying injuries such as recurrent tendinitis, for example. Here, his knee injury has handicapped him quite a bit. When we plays less, that we withdraw from certain tournaments, that the Covid makes its appearance, we can quickly lose confidence”analyzes Reginald Willems, his coach from 2011 to 2014.
He regained his confidence
If his mental abilities have often been questioned, it is clear that in the Goffin clan, his coach Germain Gigounon in mind, we have always believed in it. Our three specialists all agree on one thing: he has never lost his tennis skills. Only rhythm and confidence were lacking. Two elements found today. “At Roland-Garros, I could see that he had regained a good state of mind, his smile and the desire to fight. When he is well in his head, we know that he is one of the best players in the worldnote Olivier Rochus. He found the envy after his wounds and doubtless a certain moral lassitude. That’s tennis, it can go fast, one way or the other.”
The work done with his mental coach, Ugo Blairon, is undoubtedly no stranger to his return. “David is working with a new coach. I think it has helped him to be positive, to less internalize all the negative. They are doing a lot of work on how to behave on the pitch. David has gone through periods of doubt and I had to convince him that he could still do it”said Gigounon during the last Roland-Garros.
His title in Marrakech, a click
Goffin has never hidden his passion for the clay-grass sequence. Already in 2019, he declared that this is his favorite period. The fact of having started it in April, in Morocco, with a title at the Marrakech tournament has completely revived it. For some observers, this was the trigger. That day, the native of Rocourt understood that he was still capable of lifting trophies.
An open table
This does not detract from his current level of play, but Goffin was able to benefit from an open table in this edition of Wimbledon, especially in the first two rounds against Moldovan Albot and Argentinian Baez. His third round against the French Humbert and especially his round of 16 against the American Tiafoe were much more fiercely contested.
Reginald Willems nuances, however: “It’s not always easy to draw an affordable table on paper. Of course it’s better to avoid Nadal or Djokovic but it also puts an extra dose of pressure because you know you have opportunities and you don’t have to miss.”
It’s up to David Goffin to seize the chance offered to him.