Goran Ivanisevic on Stefanos Tsitsipas

Coaches Corner

Ivanisevic on new charge Tsitsipas: ‘A Top 10 player, any day’

Croatian joined 12-time Tour champion’s team after Roland Garros

Andy West/ATP Tour Goran Ivanisevic watches Stefanos Tsitsipas during practice on Saturday in Halle. By Andy West

Goran Ivanisevic is more than familiar with the ups and downs of life on the ATP Tour.

A former No. 2 in the PIF ATP Rankings who famously won Wimbledon as a wild card after struggles for form and fitness led to him dropping down to No. 125, Ivanisevic now hopes his experience at tennis’ top table can help bring Stefanos Tsitsipas back to the sport’s elite. That remains a group where the Croatian coach firmly believes his new charge belongs.

“He is for me a Top 10 player any day,” Ivanisevic told ATPTour.com when asked about his excitement at working with Tsitsipas, a former World No. 3 who is now No. 25. “At the moment he lost that edge a little bit. A lot of things happened and now he has to find it back.

“I’m not a magician who can make it work after one week. It’s a long process, but he’s a great player. He was two times in Grand Slam finals and had so many great victories, so I’m not worried that it’s not going to come back.”

Ivanisevic was speaking after Tsitsipas hit with Tomas Martin Etcheverry on Saturday at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle. It was the first practice for Ivanisevic and Tsitsipas together at a tournament — the Greek travelled to Zagreb for a few days following the start of their partnership after Roland Garros.

Tsitsipas, who is a 12-time ATP Tour champion, starts against Luciano Darderi on Monday at the German ATP 500, where the 26-year-old will look to rejuvenate a patchy 2025 season so far. Tsitsipas is 18-11 for the year, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, a tally highlighted by a title in Dubai.

“It’s exciting to me because of his temperament,” said Ivanisevic, when asked what attracted him to work with Tsitsipas. “Greek, Croatian are pretty similar temperaments. He’s a very aggressive player, which I like. I always liked the way he played, and his style. It’s nice to see, and nice to put some input into his game, as a server, as a serve and volleyer. For me it’s actually a huge challenge and hopefully it’s going to work well.”

Tsitsipas could hardly have added a more experienced grass-court head to his camp ahead of Halle. As well as his 2001 Wimbledon title run, Ivanisevic also reached the final at SW19 on three other occasions, while he coached Novak Djokovic to three of his seven titles at the grass-court major.

Tsitsipas will hope Ivanisevic’s presence can help him bolster his grass-court record, which stands at a moderate 22-17 but does include a title won in Mallorca in 2022. While it is statistically the Greek’s least successful surface, Ivanisevic sees no reason why a player renowned for his big serve and punishing first-strike tennis cannot succeed on the grass.

“There is a lot to work with,” he said, when asked about Tsitsipas’ potential on the surface. “Generally, he doesn’t have good results on grass. I don’t know why. It’s only [mental]. If you put in your head, ‘I cannot play on grass’, then you cannot play well, because grass doesn’t forgive you anything. If you get pissed on grass, the grass gives you it back. You have to be nice to the grass.

“So there’s lots of room to improve there. I can’t say it will happen this week for sure, but generally he can play well on grass.”

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