Cecipas’ mother describes the collaboration with Ivanisevic as a doomed “illusion.”

In December 2025, the mother of Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas disclosed for the first time in an interview the details of her son’s short-lived collaboration with Croatian legendary coach Goran Ivanisevic, openly calling their two-month mentorship a “phantom” throughout, and accepting full blame for the flawed decision.

This partnership started off hastily and under difficult circumstances. At the end of May 2025, when Ivanisevic announced joining Tsitsipas’ team, the latter was struggling through a career slump: results were declining, after a shocking second-round loss to Matteo Gigante at the French Open, he dropped out of the world’s top 20. The grass-court season was seen as a crucial opportunity to reverse the trend. However, the highly anticipated partnership failed to bring improvement — Tsitsipas lost in the second round at the Halle Open to Alex Michelsen, and retired in the first round of Wimbledon due to back pain. Within just two weeks, this seemingly powerful alliance dissolved, becoming a fleeting episode in tennis history.

From Tsitsipas’ mother’s perspective, the failure of this partnership was inevitable. She frankly said that Ivanisevic’s coaching career has always been overshadowed by “the Djokovic imprint”: from 2019 to 2024, during his five years coaching the Serbian, he helped secure 9 Grand Slam titles and 3 year-end No.1 finishes. This level of dedication and favoritism was unique. “He regarded Djokovic as a close friend who needed comprehensive care and was willing to go to any lengths for him. I naively believed this approach could be replicated with Tsitsipas, but it turned out to be a self-deceptive illusion.”She admitted that she insisted on making this collaboration happen and is now ready to take full responsibility for the mistake, even saying “the previous team was more valuable than this partnership.”

After the split, Ivanisevic openly expressed his disappointment. The 2001 Wimbledon champion criticized Tsitsipas’ physical and mental preparedness, saying “I have never seen a player so lacking professionalism,” and even joked “Even with a knee injury, I was three times better prepared than him.” These harsh comments went viral on social media and effectively ended their cooperation. Ivanisevic later acknowledged that his remarks might have “hurt Tsitsipas’ pride,” but emphasized “there are no shortcuts in tennis; success depends on both body and mind readiness.”

Following the collapse of this farcical partnership, Tsitsipas’ career did not improve. In August 2025, he restarted coaching with his father to try to regain form but still failed to reverse the decline. By year-end, his world ranking settled at No. 34, marking his worst season finish since 2017. This brief “experiment with a famous coach” ended in mutual disappointment and Tsitsipas’ continued struggles, leaving the tennis world with a profound reflection on “coach-player compatibility”: beneath the halo of legendary coaches, only aligned philosophies and commitment can produce real success, not merely a “mirage” built on past reputations.

Ivanisevic’s public criticism of Tsitsipas was indeed sharp and lacked tact. Those remarks surely had a negative impact on Tsitsipas.

After parting ways with Djokovic, Ivanisevic also tried coaching Liudmila Samsonova but left as soon as the trial period ended. Perhaps, as Tsitsipas’ mother said, Ivanisevic invested everything during his time with Djokovic. That fatherly bond is probably hard to replicate.

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