After a disappointing start to 2024 by his exceedingly high standards, 24-time Major champion Novak Djokovic’s announcement this week that he was ending his highly successful five-year coaching partnership with Goran Ivanisevic was both ruthless and said all it needed to. The world no. 1 is wading through another wave of talent hungry to knock him off his perch permanently.
Ruthless Serb searching for answers, flying solo for now
- 2001 Wimbledon champion, three-time Major finalist and former world no. 2 Goran Ivanisevic is credited with improving Djokovic’s serve as he targeted incremental gains across all areas as well as setting aside his ego to be the Serb’s emotional support soundboard through thick and thin
- Improvement needed: Djokovic is 7-3 in 2024, having lost to Alex de Minaur when representing Serbia in United Cup play before defeats by eventual Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner at the tournament’s semis and 22-year-old’s compatriot Luca Nardi in R3 at Indian Wells
- Djokovic told reporters in Belgrade: “I still don’t have a clear idea who a new coach would be, or whether there will be one at all. I’ve had coaches since I was a kid, now I’m trying to feel by myself what I need, what I feel most comfortable with… you’ll be informed if someone joins the team.”
IF you had no context or prior knowledge and were just tasked with answering this trivia question – which top tennis player split from his coach after winning 24 titles (28 finals) in five seasons together – Novak Djokovic would be the first guess.
Whatever your opinion on him, it’s just who he is and that perfectionist attitude will never change even as he gets older. Instead, his desire to find that extra half-percent has intensified as he matures into a position where the responsibility lies on him – and increasingly, only him – to fend off the new young stars breaking through.
Ivanisevic has often said just how demanding his now-former charge can be in private. While prefaced with humour and dismissed as passionate exchanges between proud Balkans, it wouldn’t have been any less exhausting to deal with when he’s winning. Imagine the sense of disaster when things occasionally went awry.
In the same vein, Djokovic has experienced a who’s who of coaches throughout his career. Although on-court coaching is now allowed, after years of unsuccessful attempts to police it during matches, it’s not as though he wouldn’t back himself to make on-the-fly adjustments in almost any situation without Ivanisevic’s presence.
Coach and pupil: Ivanisevic’s partnership with Djokovic
Nine Major titles (12 finals)
Two year-end championships
Seven Masters 1000 titles (nine finals)
Six other ATP series titles (seven finals)
It felt telling that, after a surprise three-set defeat by Italian lucky loser Luca Nardi at Indian Wells, Djokovic insisted he’d be back for Miami the following week. Then instead, he withdrew citing a desire to schedule his calendar more carefully – an understandable wish – but one that would’ve made sense publicly expressing prior.
“I do play fewer tournaments, so I’m more selective with my schedule. It’s not a great feeling when you drop out very early, especially here – where I haven’t played for five years and really wanted to do well. It wasn’t meant to be, we move on. Miami is there, so let’s see,” the 36-year-old said in press after defeat.
Although winning ugly seemed to be the theme in Melbourne before Jannik Sinner punished his proligacy in the semis, he was shocked by a poor display against Nardi, highlighting some “terrible” unforced errors and failing to be aggressive enough when it counted in the decider against a young man with nothing to lose.
That last sentence has been said very often in recent years describing the man standing opposite the Serb, though the fear factor Djokovic once possessed isn’t as ominous any longer – especially when playing a more calculated schedule.
Behind-the-scenes, the world number one has made significant changes to his team both on and off-the-court over the past few months, having cut ties with longtime agents Edoardo Artaldi and Elena Capellaro, while declaring hitting partner and coach Carlos Gomez Herrera (33) had assumed the new team manager role.
Call it foreshadowing, but Artaldi called it himself back in 2019 – a few months before Goran Ivanisevic’s arrival and now both have professionally parted ways since.
As far as what’s next, the clay season begins proper next week with a trio of ATP 250 events in Houston (USA), Estoril (Portugal) and Marrakesh (Morocco).
Djokovic is the top seed and will likely return at the Monte-Carlo Masters (M1000 event) the following week, where the tournament’s two-time champion surprisingly lost from a set up in round three against another Italian in Lorenzo Musetti.
Historically he has struggled at this event in recent seasons, so it’ll be interesting to see how his tennis holds up under the microscope after this coaching decision.
Picture source: Getty Images
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