The drama between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Goran Ivanisevic continues to unravel despite the two having parted ways almost a year ago. The Greek had decided to bring him in as his main coach in hopes of reviving his faltering season. But the two would split after less than two months in July. This came after Ivanisevic had brutally criticized Tsitsipas and had called him out for being underprepared after his early exit at Wimbledon. However, the player has now found support from none other than Patrick Mouratoglou.

“Goran going to the press and criticizing his player is not coaching. And even more at a time that they had just started to work together. So, no trust is made, and you’re already killing the person publicly,” he said, via Sport Klub.

The Coach comes with years of experience, having previously coached Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka. Patrick Mouratoglou’s academy trained Stefanos Tsitsipas from 2015 (alongside his father), during which he rose to junior world No. 1 in 2016, won his first ATP title in 2018, and went on to claim 11 tour titles, including the 2019 ATP Finals. He said the Croat didn’t address any of Tsitsipas’ issues, resulting in poor performances on court.

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“When Goran accepted that job, he probably knew that Stefanos doesn’t do things the right way or that things needed to change. But that is the job. He arrived at a bad moment, but he knows that it is a bad moment. It’s not a surprise if you see Stefanos’ results for one year. They are not even close to what he was doing before, so he knows that it’s a difficult moment. You accept or you don’t accept it.”

He didn’t stop there and went on to claim that Ivanisevic didn’t want to be associated with Tsitsipas during his poor run of form.

“This difficult moment can create wrong behaviors. You need to bring back a good behavior. In a way it makes me feel that he is ashamed of the result and he wants to separate himself from Stefanos to say that it is his fault. For me, it is painful to see this,” he concluded.

Ivanisevic had recently reignited the drama with Tsitsipas by breaking his silence on the coaching split. He felt the things that he had said about the player weren’t bad at all and didn’t take back any of his claims.

“I knew after the second day of training. When he came to Zagreb to try rackets, I knew that nothing came of it. In the end, I didn’t say anything bad; everything I stated was true and proved to be so,” Ivanišević said in an interview with Sport Klub on March 27.

Just a few days after this, Tsitsipas had decided to hit back at Ivanisevic for the scathing comments that he had made about him last year. The former World No. 3 revealed that he was “really hurt” with the things that his former coach had said.

“I didn’t see any point in it. If it was a way of him pushing me into working harder and getting my sh*t together, it was definitely not the right tactic. I was really hurt,” Tsitsipas told The Times.

“I never expected that a coach could do that to me, and the worst thing is that what he said was not true. I was not fit because I had been injured. I hadn’t been practicing properly for over two weeks. It was like he kicked me when I was already down.”

After parting ways with Ivanisevic, Tsitsipas had decided to reunite with his father, Apostolos Tsitsipas. However, this appointment hasn’t really gone as planned, and the Greek’s setback at the Monte Carlo Masters is the latest example of that.

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ struggles continue in Monaco

The World No. 48 has suffered another first-round exit, this time at the Monte Carlo Open. He got knocked out after being handed a 5-7, 4-6 defeat by Francisco Cerundolo. This loss will be quite a painful one to take for the Greek, as he had previously won the tournament on three occasions (2021, 2022, and 2024).

This result could see the Greek fall all the way down to No. 65 in the next ATP rankings update. This will be his lowest position since 2018, which highlights his abysmal form in recent times.

Notably, Stefanos Tsitsipas has only made it to the quarterfinals on one occasion ever since appointing his father as coach last year. Though he has been regularly participating in ATP events, he just can’t seem to find a way to get past the opening rounds at the moment.

After being eliminated from the singles draw, Tsitsipas will soon be in doubles action at the Monte Carlo Masters. He has formed a pair with his brother, Pavlos Tsitsipas, for the competition, and they will be taking on the duo of Manuel Guinard and Guido Andreozzi in the Round of 32 on April 7. Whether Stefanos Tsitsipas can revive his form under his father’s guidance remains to be seen.