 "Former coaches of Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams engage in war of words. Reuters")
Two of tennis’ most well-known coaches are currently engaged in a heated war of words, and it is now getting out of hand. Goran Ivanisevic, who worked with 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic for six years, has taken a dig at fellow coach Patrick Mouratoglou, who coached Serena Williams for 10 years.
Ivanisevic recently ended his short two-month partnership with Stefanos Tsitsipas in July, just after a disappointing Wimbledon, where the Greek star retired in the first round due to injury. Mouratoglou had also coached Tsitsipas for three years from 2018 to 2021.
Mouratoglou slams Ivanisevic over Tsitsipas comments
Ivanisevic recently criticised Tsitsipas for being out of shape and lacking effort, saying, “He says he wants to return to the top level, but he’s not doing anything. It’s always ‘I want, I want,’ but I don’t see any progress. I was shocked; I’ve never seen a more unprepared player in my life. With this knee, I’m three times fitter than him."
That harsh comment didn’t sit well with Mouratoglou, who had helped Tsitsipas reach a career-high world No. 3 and make two Grand Slam finals. Mouratoglou said Ivanisevic was just blaming the player to save face and added, “Goran going to the press and criticising his player is not coaching.”
“Even more, at that time, they’ve just started to work together, so no trust is made. You’re already killing the person publicly,” Mouratoglou was quoted as saying in the Daily Express.
“When Goran accepts the job, he knows that Stefanos probably doesn’t do things the right way or things need to change, but that’s the job. He arrives at a bad moment, but he knows it’s a bad moment. It’s not a surprise. If you look at the results of Stefanos for one year, they’re not even close to what he was doing before. So he knows it’s a difficult moment," he added.
“You accept it or you don’t accept it. These difficult moments can create wrong behaviours. This is what you need to bring back to good behaviours. In a way, it makes me feel that [Ivanisevic] is ashamed of the result and he wants to separate himself from Stefanos to say, ‘It’s not me, I’m good.’ He is not good. That’s his fault. So yeah, for a coach to see this, for me it’s painful to see it.”
Ivanisevic hits back
Now, Ivanisevic has responded again, saying in an interview that Mouratoglou should have spoken to him directly instead of going public. “If he has a problem with me, he should call me. I don’t go around and talk about what I think about him. I’d better not say what I think about him."