Goran Ivanisevic, a former No. 2 in the ATP rankings and Wimbledon champion, has taken on the role of coach for Stefanos Tsitsipas. Ivanisevic, who overcame personal challenges to win Wimbledon as a wild card, aims to use his experience to guide Tsitsipas back to tennis’ elite ranks. Despite Tsitsipas currently being ranked No. 25, Ivanisevic is confident in his potential.
“He is for me a Top 10 player any day,” Ivanisevic expressed to ATPTour.com regarding his new collaboration with Tsitsipas. “At the moment he lost that edge a little bit. A lot of things happened and now he has to find it back.”
Ivanisevic acknowledges that reviving Tsitsipas’ form will be a gradual process: “I’m not a magician who can make it work after one week. It’s a long process, but he’s a great player.”
The partnership between Ivanisevic and Tsitsipas began at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle following their initial meeting in Zagreb post-Roland Garros. Tsitsipas is set to face Luciano Darderi at the German ATP 500 event as he seeks improvement in what has been an inconsistent season.
“It’s exciting to me because of his temperament,” said Ivanisevic about working with Tsitsipas. “Greek, Croatian are pretty similar temperaments. He’s a very aggressive player, which I like.”
Ivanisevic’s extensive grass-court experience could prove beneficial for Tsitsipas, whose record on this surface stands at 22-17 with one title from Mallorca in 2022.
“There is a lot to work with,” noted Ivanisevic on improving Tsitsipas’ grass performance. “Generally, he doesn’t have good results on grass… If you put in your head, ‘I cannot play on grass’, then you cannot play well.”
Ivanisevic remains optimistic about enhancing Tsitsipas’ capabilities: “So there’s lots of room to improve there… generally he can play well on grass.”