Djokovic Ex-Coach Ivanisevic Criticized for Attacking New Student Tsitsipas

Goran Ivanisevic just started coaching Stefanos Tsitsipas, but he’s already making waves for all the wrong reasons. The Croatian coach made some pretty harsh comments about his new player’s fitness level, and Patrick Mouratoglou isn’t having it.

Ivanisevic knows what excellence looks like. He spent years working with Novak Djokovic, watching the Serbian superstar collect 24 Grand Slam titles.

But since splitting with Djokovic, things haven’t been smooth sailing for the former Wimbledon champion.

He tried working with Elena Rybakina a few months back. That partnership fell apart pretty quickly.

Now he’s taken on Tsitsipas, and their first outing together was a disaster. The Greek player had to retire from his match, and instead of offering support, Ivanisevic basically threw him under the bus.

The Croatian coach slammed Tsitsipas for being out of shape. Not exactly the kind of pep talk you’d expect from someone who just signed on to help turn your career around.

Tennis fans weren’t happy about those comments. Neither was Mouratoglou, who coached Tsitsipas before and clearly still feels protective of him.

The French coach fired back on social media, and he didn’t mince words.

"Painful to see this. When a coach attacks his player like that, especially so early in their collaboration, it hurts. Mutual trust and support should always come first."

Mouratoglou then posted a video breaking down why Ivanisevic’s approach was so problematic. As someone who’s coached at the highest level, he knows how important trust is between a player and coach.

And right now? That trust is probably pretty shaky.

"For coach to see this, for me, it’s painful. Goran arrives at a bad moment, but he knows it’s a bad moment. It’s not a surprise if you see the results of Stef for one year, they’re not even close to what he was doing before."

Mouratoglou’s got a point here. Tsitsipas has been struggling for over a year now. His results have been way below what we’re used to seeing from someone who was once ranked as high as number three in the world.

If you’re taking on a player during their rough patch, you know what you’re signing up for.

"This difficult moment can create wrong behaviors. This is what you need to bring back to good behavior. In a way, it makes me feel that he [Goran] is ashamed of the results, and he wants to separate himself from Stefanos, to say, ‘it’s not me.’"

It’s a really tough situation. Ivanisevic might have been telling the truth about Tsitsipas’s fitness, but there’s a time and place for that kind of honesty. Doing it publicly right after their first match together? That’s probably not it.

The timing makes it even worse. Tsitsipas just withdrew from the Croatia Open in Umag – a tournament where Ivanisevic serves as an ambassador and even has a stadium named after him.

Talk about awkward.

Some fans are already wondering if this means the coaching partnership is over before it really began. That would be pretty surprising, considering they just teamed up.

But when your new coach is publicly criticizing you after one match, it’s hard to imagine that’s building the kind of confidence a struggling player needs.

Ivanisevic probably won’t respond to Mouratoglou’s comments directly. He’s not really known for getting into public spats with other coaches.

But it’ll be really interesting to see what he says the next time someone asks him about working with working with Tsitsipas. Will he double down on his criticism, or try to smooth things over?

Right now, the Greek player needs support more than anything else. He’s been sliding down the rankings and clearly struggling to find his best tennis.

Whether Ivanisevic can provide that support – or if this partnership will go the same way as his brief stint with Rybakina – remains to be seen.