Novak Djokovic splits with coach Goran Ivanisevic, with whom he took half of the major titles

World number one Novak Djokovic has announced the end of his partnership with Croatian Goran Ivanisevic, the sensational 2001 Wimbledon champion who, as coach, helped the Serb win exactly half of his 24 Grand Slam titles. The collapse of one of the most effective tandems in tennis history could signal both the imminent end of Djokovic’s illustrious career and his attempt to make changes to his preparation before the start of the clay season.

World ranking leader Novak Djokovic announced his separation from Goran Ivanisevic on social networks. The message was written with great warmth. “Working with Goran not only helped improve my serve, but also brought me a lot of joy, laughter, a world number one ranking, records and Grand Slam victories. We have experienced ups and downs on the court, but our friendship has always been strong,” Djokovic emphasized.

The beginning of this season was unsuccessful for the great Serb. For the first time since 2018, he suffered a defeat at the Australian Open, losing there in the semifinals to future champion Jannik Sinner, and in the third round of the tournament in Indian Wells he sensationally lost to the 123rd racket of the world, Italian Luca Nardi. Nevertheless, Djokovic’s current statement has become a sensation.

After all, Ivanisevic should be considered a full-fledged co-author of several outstanding records recently set by Novak Djokovic, who for a long time guaranteed himself the title of the strongest tennis player in the world of all time.

Goran Ivanisevic, who was considered a very charismatic figure in his time, rose to second place in the world classification, and in 2001 became the only Wimbledon champion to get into the main draw via a wild card, joining Djokovic’s team in 2018. This was in many ways a turning point in the Serbian’s career. Having won 12 majors by the end of 2016 under the leadership of Slovakian Marian Vajda and with the participation of German Boris Becker, he first came under the influence of the Spanish “spiritual guru” Pepe Imas, and then hired former world number one American Andre Agassi as a coach and actually failed the next season . The situation was corrected thanks to the resumption of cooperation with Vajda and the involvement of Ivanisevic in training, who was tasked with improving the quality of his serve. After that, for several years, the Slovak and Croatian appeared at tournaments both together and in turns, and their ward experienced a kind of renaissance in his thirties. Over the next six years, Djokovic doubled his number of Grand Slam victories and increased the number of weeks he spent at number one in the world rankings from 223 to 418. Moreover, two years ago, Ivanisevic remained Djokovic’s only coach (except for physical training specialists) and contributed to his brilliant performance last season, during which the Serb managed to catch up and overtake Rafael Nadal in the number of major titles, winning the Australian Open, Roland Garros and US Open. It is no coincidence that a few months ago, Djokovic publicly expressed surprise that the annual ATP prize for the best coach for 2023 went to two of Jannik Sinner’s mentors – Australian Darren Cahill and Italian Simone Vagnozzi, and not Ivanisevic.

It is not yet possible to draw clear conclusions about the Croatian’s dismissal now, just before the start of the clay season. In May, shortly before Roland Garros, Djokovic will turn 37 years old, and at that age any decisions, including those regarding retirement, look logical. True, nothing seems to hint at this option yet. It is only known that at press conferences after the last two defeats, the Serb openly expressed surprise at the low level of his play.

Be that as it may, the collaboration between Djokovic and Ivanisevic not only became a fateful piece of tennis history in its own way, but also allowed the Croatian to become one of the top three most successful coaches in men’s tennis, based on the number of victories of his players at Grand Slam tournaments.

Topping the list is Vajda, who has been directly involved in Djokovic’s 20 major titles, followed by Spain’s Tony Nadal, who led his nephew Rafael Nadal to 16 such triumphs.

Evgeniy Fedyakov