Goran Ivanisevic has claimed that he and Novak Djokovic should have stopped working together six months ago as he shed light on their recent split. Ivanisevic coached the world No. 1 for five years until they suddenly decided to part ways during a recent trip to America. And the Croat has now explained exactly why they agreed to end their coaching partnership.
Djokovic surprised fans last week when he announced he was no longer working with Ivanisevic. It came off the back of a tough trip to America for the ‘sunshine double’, where Djokovic lost early in Indian Wells and pulled out of the Miami Open. Given his surprise losses and lack of a title win in 2024, theories swirled over their split.
But Ivanisevic has now cleared things up, explaining that he and Djokovic simply grew fatigued after spending so long together. Addressing the speculation over their split, the 2001 Wimbledon champion told Tennis Majors: “Well I read a lot of those… I repeat again, people just have to write something, unfortunately no one was even close to getting it.
“I mean, there isn’t really a ‘real’ reason. One reason is indeed a sense of saturation/fatigue, this really was a difficult and intense five years.” During their wildly successful period together, Ivanisevic noted that they also went through some trials and tribulations – most notably, Djokovic’s deportation from Australia.
And the 52-year-old now believes that he can’t help Djokovic anymore. “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,” he added.
Although their split seemingly came out of nowhere, Ivanisevic has also claimed they likely should have stopped working together six months earlier when Djokovic won the US Open not long after after his crushing Wimbledon final loss. The former world No. 2 continued: “We then went to America, and it goes without saying, an incredible run there – that finals match against [Carlos] Alcaraz in Cincinnati, winning the US Open; however, that’s when I really began to feel that the end was near.
“It was only a question of whether that would be at the end of the year, or at some point in this year, and just now in America when I spoke to Novak he said something good – there is no right or wrong moment, there is only that moment when it happens, when two people agree it is time.
