Consequence or simple coincidence, Novak Djokovic without Goran Ivanisevic he no longer knows how to win. It’s almost time for Roland Garros, the second slam of the year, we’re in May and the Serbian, between injuries and debacles, still has zero titles in his cupboard in 2024.
The latest misstep was the defeat at the Rome Internationals against the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo. The Serbian, who has chosen Nenad Zimonjic as his new coach, will try to turn his season around in Paris, trying to defend his title and first place.
Former coach Ivanisevic spoke about his situation. In the words reported by the newspaper Blick he explained their relationship and how high the pressure is for those who are forced to always win.
The words of Goran Ivanisevic
These are the statements of the former coach of the Serbian champion: “When you coach Novak Djokovic, anything less than winning a title is a failure in any tournament.
There is a lot of pressure, Novak is very demanding, he always wants to improve. And if you can’t handle it, you might as well not take the job. The language helped me a lot, there were no barriers between us. With Novak you only have a few seconds to explain something to him, he wants to know fifteen things at a time, but you only have three seconds to do it.
So you have to try to summarize everything. It can be difficult, but I had fun with Novak.” Ivanisevic continued: “It’s very difficult to highlight his weaknesses: is it a weakness if he misses a shot after 25 rounds? But that’s what we did, we worked a lot on his serve, especially on the second serve.
We also worked on his positional play at the net and his volleys. At this high level, it’s all about the details. It’s the same for all the best players, yet they are all different.
Federer has always seemed completely relaxed during training, while Nadal trains so intensely that he seems to be chased by 300 lions.” The former Croatian tennis player concluded by talking about their arguments during matches.
“It happened over and over again. Then he would yell at me again and everyone saw it. Sometimes I could understand him well, sometimes not. Maybe he wanted to know something about the service and I said something about the clouds. Then Novak would get angry with me, but at least it was about me.
After five minutes he calmed down again, was able to let off steam and play freely. Sometimes in tennis you need a little shock to reset your head. I believe the mental component is the most important factor in this sport” commented Ivanisevic.
