Twenty-three years after his SW19 win, Ivanisevic also reflects on the miracle of that tournament, the future of the game and coaching ‘the greatest player of all time’
Anyone who watched tennis in the ’90s can picture the serve of Goran Ivanisevic and what was often the trepidation of the opponent at the other end.
On TV, it’s rapid. But from 25 metres away, and with the lateral movement, footwork and forehand that is closer to Andre the Giant than Andre Agassi, it feels like an achievement to see it, never mind return it.
As the first serve begins its trajectory, this returner thinks ‘forehand’ and starts to take a step to the left. The problem is that the starting point is too close to the baseline, so while the mind is still thinking, the ball begins to arc its way inwards, bounces and hits me in the lower stomach. A few inches lower and it would’ve been a very different kind of double-bagel. Fifteen-love.
The next serve is slightly wider, at least the racket makes contact, but the ball bounces before reaching the net. Thirty-love.
The next backhand return gets closer to making it over the net but lands on the adjacent court. Forty-love.
The last one is gently lobbed over the net for a chance of redemption but is returned long and ugly. Game, Ivanisevic.
Former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic along with Zara Burns (18) and John McGarvey (11) at Templeogue Tennis Club yesterday. Photo: CorporatePhotographersDublin
As he has been for the previous hour in Templeogue Tennis Club, the 52-year-old is smiling.
Arriving from Zagreb yesterday morning, he has spent the previous hour hitting balls and chatting with some of the club’s junior members, one of whom has a Leaving Cert PE exam later.
Judging by her returns to the 2001 Wimbledon champion in the morning, the afternoon should be a doddle.
Ivanisevic is travelling to tennis clubs in Greystones, Malahide and back to Templeogue over the weekend for three sold-out tennis clinics, the first of their kind led by a Wimbledon champion since John McEnroe and Pat Cash in the 1980s.
Whether it’s to Novak Djokovic, who Ivanisevic coached until last March, or 11-year-olds in Dublin, the Croatian’s coaching philosophy remains broadly the same.
“I try to make everything very simple,” he says. “Tennis is a very complicated sport, a lot of unexpected things happen during the match, and if you complicate it too much, you get confused or lost in this sea of complications – easier is the best.
“‘Simple’ doesn’t mean that they don’t need to practise or don’t need to listen or work hard, but players need to try to keep it [as] simple as possible in their head.
“Some people, they like to, especially these days, teach a lot of bulls**t, frankly. And sometimes I don’t understand what they are talking about, and I’ve been around the tour for years, and that sounds like a different sport.
“Everybody asked me why I kept my racket head down on serve, but it was because we played with a wooden racket when I learned, so it was easier for me when I was younger to keep it down because it was heavy. It wasn’t technically perfect, but it worked for me, so the coach didn’t try to change it.”
It’s a philosophy Ivanisevic applied to Djokovic for the nearly six years they worked together.
When they started working together, the Serb had a dozen Grand Slams, by the time they finished, he had doubled the tally and, with 24, has won more than any player in the history of the game. Or, to put it another way, one more than Pete Sampras, Agassi and Ivanisevic combined.
Before Djokovic, Ivanisevic coached Marin Cilic to the US Open title in 2014, then worked with Tomas Berdych and Milos Raonic before the call came in 2019 to join Djokovic’s team.
So, with an approach of keeping things simple, what’s the approach to coaching someone who knows . . .
“Everything?”, he interrupts to finish the question. “When I was coaching the other players, I was often around Novak from the other side of the net, so I could see certain things.
“I know I’m not going to teach him anything new that he doesn’t know, but there are always things he can improve. He’s a guy who wants to do everything better and better, even if he is already great at it.
“The most important thing that made my job easier was language and mentality. We speak the same language, [and] we are pretty much the same mentality – Balkan – so I could think in advance of the way I could approach something.
“Sometimes there would be a spark between us because our characters are similar, but I’m the coach, so I know it’s all about him. The coach has to put the ego and everything underground because it’s all about the player and I have to deal with how to approach his stress or how he is on court. It’s not about me.
“Usually, I was trying to explain calmly, but sometimes I might do something just to shock him and it worked, but you can’t do that always. To be a coach, you need to adjust to the player – that’s what’s important. Especially him, he’s not the easiest to coach, but he’s the best.”
The door remains open for Ivanisevic to return to coaching, but he has promised himself a break until at least September; in the meantime, he can watch his 16-year-old son Emanuel, who is following in his father’s tennis footsteps but is “a totally different player”.
“I’m only here to help him with logistics,” he smiles. “I don’t think I can coach him. I don’t want to lose the father-and-son [relationship] because if you’re coach, then you get too many fights, so I’d rather be a good father and enjoy the journey with him.”
Ivanisevic’s playing journey reached a high of No 2 in the world, but it’s with Wimbledon he is most associated, having lost his first final as a 20-year-old to Agassi in 1992, his second to Sampras in ’94 and, finally, to Sampras again in ’98 which, he admits now, “killed him”.
Three years later, ranked 125 in the world, he achieved his greatest moment.
“To this day, I still don’t know how I won in 2001, but you need to have luck,” he recalls of a golden 15 days which finished with him beating Pat Rafter 9-7 in the fifth set, having trailed home hero Tim Henman in the semi-final before rain intervened when he was two sets to one behind.
“So many things happened in the 15 days that I cannot explain, it was like somebody else was making things for me,” as he imitates somebody pulling strings. “Why the rain came when I was supposed to lose to Henman.
“At that moment, I was losing and I didn’t know what to do. As soon as the rain came, I knew that was it, I was going to win and he knew I was going to win, too, so it was unbelievable. It’s a special moment for me to be Wimbledon champion.”
It’s a measure of the dominance Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have enjoyed since Ivanisevic won Wimbledon that only two finals out of 21 haven’t featured one of those three.
Last year, Carlos Alcaraz beat Djokovic in the final, and though Ivanisevic believes it is “stupid” to compare eras, he expects Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner to be the two leading lights this year and for many to come.
“Tennis was great before when I was watching [Bjorn] Borg, [Jimmy] Connors, McEnroe, it was great in my era, it was great in the era after me and it will be great in the era after those three,” he insists. Sinner and Alcaraz are great guys and both have perfect tennis but different styles, so it’s perfect to watch.
“They are No 1 and No 2 if you take Novak out, but Novak is still there. We’re going to be watching them for a long time, but Novak will still have something to say.”
