Greg
Rusedski, the former British-Canadian tennis player, commented that Novak
Djokovic's coach, Goran Ivanisevic, was the only one deserving the Coach of the
Year award at the 2023 ATP Awards. The award went to Darren Cahill and Simone
Vagnozzi, who work together with world No. 4 Jannik Sinner.
The 1997 US
Open finalist acknowledged Sinner's fantastic year but believed Ivanisevic's
efforts made him deserving of the award, considering Djokovic's three Grand
Slam victories and ending the year as the undisputed world No. 1.
Through his
social media, Rusedski shared his opinion, recognizing Sinner's great work but
emphasizing Djokovic's accomplishments at the age of 36: "Strange one
match away from the calendar slam. 24 majors and counting. Darren Cahill has
done a great job with Sinner, but only one man deserves coach of the year and
that is Goran. Harder to stay at the top than to get there, especially at 36
years young," Rusedski posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Djokovic’s
opinion
Djokovic
himself recently expressed his discontent with Ivanisevic being denied the
award and ironically commented on what it takes to win the prize. Nevertheless,
the Serbian congratulated Sinner's coaching team:
"Congratulations
to Darren and Simone for a great season with Jannik. Goran, I guess we need to
win 4/4 Slams in order for you to maybe (just maybe) be considered coach of the
year. Winning Year End #1, 3 GS and WTF [World Tour Finals] and making history
of this sport is not enough, my dear coach."
The Serbian
had one of the best seasons of his career: he won three out of the four Grand
Slam tournaments for the fourth time in his career and surpassed Rafael Nadal's
22 Grand Slam titles, making him the tennis player with the most Slams in
history. Djokovic secured six titles: the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and
the US Open, in addition to the Masters 1000 titles at Cincinnati and Paris,
and finally the ATP Finals. With these achievements, he ended the year with a
record of 56 wins and 7 losses.
"It's
definitely one of the best seasons. I mean, I had couple of years, I think
three times, that I won three out of four slams in a season, like 2011, 2015.
In those years, I won more matches. I mean, I played more tournaments. I was
really, I mean, feeling very dominant on the tour," he said last month.
