Greek tennis heartthrob, Stefanos Tsitsipas, hasn’t looked the same after winning the Dubai Tennis Championships earlier this year. Following that emphatic title triumph, he faced an early exit at the ‘Sunshine Doubles’, and then, even on clay, he has had a disappointing outing this season. The 2021 finalist recently got knocked out of the French Open at the hands of Italy’s Matteo Gigante. The Italian qualifier captured his maiden Top 20 win by defeating Tsitsipas by 6-4,5-7,6-2,6-4. Following this defeat, the Greek called in for a massive change in their team. What is that change, though?

Well, following this exit from the Roland Garros, Tsitsipas said, “Disappointing ending to this match. I expected more from myself in these two weeks, so being eliminated from a tournament like this so early definitely hurts, and I will try to reflect and see the specific things that went wrong and work around them.” Having said that, he also mentioned, “I feel like my experience stabs me. I still want to be the best player in the world and I still want to achieve great things in this sport I chose to play. My focus and concentration are always on trying to improve any aspect of my game. I am an optimistic person. I don’t want to make excuses or anything like that, so all my attention is focused on how we can reach solutions, resolve certain things.“

With this defeat, Stefanos Tsitsipas has now dropped down to number 25 in the Live Rankings, and as a result, he is all set to drop out of the Top 20 for the very first time since August 2018. Speaking about the constant ups and downs in his career in his post-match press conference, he also said, “It’s a constant puzzle. I am ambitious and want to show it on the tennis court.”

In order to resolve those things that are affecting his game the most and bring out his best version, he has now brought in Novak Djokovic’s former coach, Goran Ivanisevic, into his team. Although the collaboration has no duration and will initially be a trial, as per the reports. This is a major boost ahead of his campaign at the Halle tournament next month.

Interestingly, both Novak Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas have never gotten along very well on the Tour. They’ve met each other fourteen times on the Tour, with the Serb winning twelve out of those encounters. But having seen their rivalry for almost seven years now, one thing is for sure that these two have never really seen eye-to-eye in their matchups.

How did this cold relationship between the two start? Well, it all started when Stefanos Tsitsipas had once snubbed the 24-time Grand Slam champion while naming the greatest sportsperson of all time. If we take a look at the timeline of their frigid relationship, in 2020, the Greek had once struck his father and coach in frustration during one of his matches against Novak Djokovic. Following that match, the Serb advised the youngster to “manage his emotions” better and not to let anger get the better of him. Tsitsipas didn’t like this comment, and he told him not to comment on the emotional outbursts of others, given his own record of on-court misconduct.

Then a year later, after seeing Tstisipas taking a long bathroom break during a match against Andy Murray, the Serb accused him of trying to disrupt his opponent’s momentum. Although he never specifically mentioned his name, Djokovic claimed that he wasn’t a big fan of these lengthy toilet breaks and insisted that this is something that needs to be addressed seriously. Even at that time, Tsitsipas gave a reply saying he did nothing outside the rules. A similar thing happened during the 2023 French Open when Tsitsipas was spotted delaying the start of a tie-break. Seeing this, Djokovic went up to the umpire and said, “Every single time.“

Stefanos Tsitsipas was also critical of Novak Djokovic’s COVID-19 vaccination stance. Not only that, he once even claimed that he felt Djokovic had an advantage over his opponents during major tournaments because of his “close relationship with the tournament organizers.” He perhaps hinted at a favoritism tag for the Serbian superstar! In response to that, Djokovic spoke about the “lack of respect” from the younger generations towards the ‘Big 3’ in men’s tennis. 

Then, at the 2023 AO final, Tsitsipas’ father and coach, Apostolos, was accused of “disrespecting” Novak Djokovic after he refused to stand during the prize ceremony. Now, the addition of Goran Ivanisevic makes it more interesting after seeing all these feuds between the two tennis stars. But what did Djokovic split with this 53-year-old Croatian, and what was it like coaching someone like Nole?

Novak Djokovic’s ex-coach reveals the real reason behind their split

Goran Ivanisevic joined Novak Djokovic‘s team in 2019 and during this five-year tenure before the split in 2024, he has helped the Serb win numerous titles and also helped him reach the number one spot in the singles ranking. So, while making this announcement last year, Djokovic shared a heartfelt note saying, “Goran and I decided to stop working together a few days ago. Our on-court chemistry had its ups and downs, but our friendship was always rock solid.“

He also mentioned, “In fact, not only we brought serve, but also lots of laughter, fun, year-end no1 rankings, record-breaking achievements, and 12 more Grand Slams (and a few finals) to the count since then. Did I mention a bit of drama too?” Owing to these massive achievements with the ‘Serbinator’, Ivanisevic was also nominated for the ATP Coach of the Year Award in 2023. But what was the reason behind this split?

In a previous interview with Sasa Ozmo and Sport Klub, the Croatian said, “One reason is indeed a sense of saturation/fatigue, this really was a difficult and intense five years…So yes, we reached a certain level of saturation, as I like to say: “material fatigue”, just as a car needs a regular service and tune up, basically I became tired of him, he became tired of me; in any case, I didn’t feel like I could help him anymore. Even so, when we add it all up together, we achieved great things for ourselves and for tennis.”

But having spent so many days with one of the finest of the game, what was it like coaching someone like Novak Djokovic? Talking about the hardest part, he said, “I don’t know what could be the hardest. He’s quite serious. He likes biomechanics and many similar things…He wants to be perfect at it. He’s a perfectionist. I am too, but you have to find some balance.” What about the easiest part? “The easiest thing for me is that I have never seen a tennis player who can not play tennis for two months and then play as if he never even stopped.“

After the split with the Serb, Goran Ivanisevic surprised everyone with his brief stint with Elena Rybakina. Although that partnership didn’t last long, do you think the Croatian can bring success to the Tsitsipas camp?