Stefanos Tsitsipas hires Goran Ivanisevic, Novak Djokovic's former coach

New York Times

29-05-2025

Two-time Grand Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas has hired former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanišević as his new coach.
Ivanišević, 53, will join Tsitsipas' team from the start of the Halle Open in Germany, for a trial period. Tsitsipas' father, Apostolos, who has been in his coaching box at recent events, will not be part of his coaching team at least initially, according to a report in Greek outlet SDNA. A representative for Ivanišević confirmed this element of the partnership to The Athletic, and said that Ivanišević will work full-time with Tsitsipas for a substantial number of weeks per year. Ivanišević believes Tsitsipas should be in the world's top 10 and has always got on well with him when their paths have crossed on tour.
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Tsitsipas later confirmed the 'new coaching partnership' on social media.
Tsitsipas, who will leave the the world's top 20 for the first time since August 2018 when the rankings update a week on Monday, has had a difficult couple of years and has brought on Novak Djokovic's former coach to try and arrest the slide. He most recently exited the French Open in the second round, losing to Italian qualifier Matteo Gigante Wednesday.
Afterward, Tsitsipas spoke about how he is struggling to keep up with the demands of the tour, and how he has suffered physically in the aftermath of picking up injuries over the last few years. 'It's a constant puzzle,' he said in a news conference.
'Things have definitely changed over the last couple of years, and I know that I find myself in a completely different position now. '
Tsitsipas, 26, has spent much of the last year trying to rediscover the form and love for tennis that made him look like a potential Grand Slam champion when he burst onto the scene seven years ago. In August 2024, he took the radical step of removing his father from his coaching team after a surprise defeat to Japan's Kei Nishikori, then the world No. 576, in Montreal.
Tsitsipas said he was 'disappointed' in his father's work in a news conference after that loss.
'I need and I deserve a coach that listens to me and hears my feedback as a player. My father hasn't been very smart or very good at handling those situations,' he said.
Tsitsipas has since worked with Greece's Davis Cup captain, Dimitris Chatzinikolaou. He also switched rackets in search of a winning formula, but could not say what the new one was for contractual reasons. The profile — and an uncovered logo seen on a stringing machine in Dubai — suggested a Babolat Pure Aero 98 model. But at the French Open, he returned to the Wilson frame, after experiencing back pain using the newer racket on the clay.
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His 2025 results have largely remained underwhelming — save for winning February's Dubai Tennis Championships in the United Arab Emirates — as he seeks a return to the early days of his career, when he thrilled the tennis world with his flair and shotmaking ability.
When he returned to clay, which is his preferred surface, Tsitsipas suffered a disappointing quarterfinal loss to Lorenzo Musetti at the Monte Carlo Masters in Monaco. Tsitsipas was defending champion and had won the event three times in four years; the lost ranking points attached to the defeat saw Tsitsipas tumble to his lowest position for almost seven years. He then lost to Musetti again at the Madrid Open, before losing to Arthur Fils at the Italian Open in Rome.
As a coach, 2001 Wimbledon champion Ivanišević is best known for the six seasons he spent with Novak Djokovic, in which the Serb won 12 Grand Slam titles. They split in March 2024. Ivanišević then briefly worked with fellow Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina at the start of 2025, but they parted following her fourth-round exit at the Australian Open.
The split came after it became clear that Rybakina was still working with her previous coach, Stefano Vukov. Vukov has since been given a one-year ban by the WTA for breaching its code of conduct with his behavior, which chief executive Portia Archer described as amounting to 'engaging in abuse of authority and abusive conduct.'
It's felt as though Tsitsipas has been searching for his tennis identity ever since Carlos Alcaraz thrashed him at the 2022 French Open.
'I do need a bit more of that Tsitsipas in my game. I'm trying to reinvent myself with that fearlessness,' he told The Athletic a month after being beaten 6-2, 6-1, 7-6(5) by a 19-year-old Alcaraz, referring to the early part of his career.
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Being pummelled by the next big thing in men's tennis, having held and then lost that title himself, hurt Tsitsipas. It was the first of several visceral reminders that the Greek, who lost his two major finals to Djokovic, has been stalled not just by the 'Big Three' of Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, but also the ascendant Alcaraz and now Jannik Sinner. Tsitsipas has found himself confined to an awkward spot somewhere just below the very top, along with fellow 'sandwich generation' members like Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev — though Medvedev has claimed the major title that has eluded the other two.
As he approaches his 27th birthday in August, it makes sense for Tsitsipas to try something different. He's worked with Australian Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis before, but bringing on a coach of Ivanišević's stature feels like a significant shakeup. Ivanišević too will relish this opportunity, after a difficult period working with Rybakina and the end of what was a very successful but at times volatile partnership with Djokovic.
Like Tsitsipas, Ivanišević lost his first two Grand Slam finals. He then lost a third, but finally won at the fourth time of asking by claiming the 2001 Wimbledon title. Tsistipas has not reached the semifinals of a major since he lost to Djokovic in Melbourne just over two years ago.
Ivanišević also has pedigree as a coach in guiding someone from outside the top echelons of the rankings to a major title, doing so in 2014 with Marin Čilić, who was the No. 14 seed when he won the U.S. Open, beating Federer en route to the final against Nishikori.
Tsitsipas will be desperate for a similar uptick in his fortunes. He has the talent to climb back into the world's top 10 — he was ranked as high as No. 3 in 2021 — but his backhand has long hamstrung him away from clay, particularly when returning serve. Ivanišević is also one of the best servers in the history of the sport, especially on grass, and he'll hope to lift Tsitsipas in that area too.
If Ivanišević can tighten some of the aspects where Tsitsipas has been struggling, and help with the mental side of how to go from nearly man to champion, then men's tennis could have one of its most exciting players back on song.