Novak Djokovic and coach Goran Ivanisevic part ways

World number one Novak Djokovic and his coach Goran Ivanisevic have parted ways. The Serbian tennis player took to social media to make the announcement of the split.

The partnership between Djokovic and Ivanisevic was a highly successful one with the Serb winning nine Grand Slam titles under the Croatian’s tutelage. Before coaching Djokovic, Ivanisevic had coached Marin Cilic, Tomas Berdych and Milos Raonic.

The split comes just before the clay season commences, with Djokovic gunning to win his 25th Grand Slam title when the French Open gets underway in May.

Ivanisevic and Djokovic have worked together since 2019, alongside his mentor Marian Vajda, and the Serb indicated that the partnership ended a few days ago. “Goran (Ivanisevic) and I decided to stop working together a few days ago. Our on-court chemistry had its ups and downs, but our friendship was always rock solid,” Djokovic wrote on Instagram.

Ivanisevic was nominated for the ATP Coach of the Year Award last year after guiding Djokovic to win three Grand Slam titles.

However, the ongoing season hasn’t been a successful one for the World No. 1. The Serb, looking for his 25th Major title, lost in the semi-finals of the Australian Open to Jannik Sinner and then suffered a third-round defeat to World No. 123 Luka Nardi at the Indian Wells earlier this month. He later withdrew from the Miami Open for a work-life balance.

Djokovic said the move to bring in Ivanisevic as a coach was taken in 2018 when both Djokovic and Marian were looking for some innovation. “I remember clearly the moment I invited Goran to be part of my team. It was back in 2018, and Marian and I were looking to innovate and bring some serve magic to our duo,” he said.

The World No.1 acknowledged that the journey together was a fascinating one. “In fact, not only we brought serve, but also lots of laughter, fun, year end no1 rankings, record breaking achievements and 12 more Grand Slams (and a few finals) to the count since then. Did I mention a bit of drama too?” he added in the post.

Currently Djokovic is tied with Margaret Court with 24 Grand Slam titles each and one more Major win will make Djokovic the most successful singles player in the history of the sport.