"Harder to stay at the top than get there": Goran Ivanisevic was wrongfully denied Coach of the Year says Greg Rusedski

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 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.