Ivanisevic 'still a little sad' after Djokovic's loss to Alcaraz, but admits it is harder for the 23-time Grand Slam champion

Novak Djokovic's coach Goran Ivanisevic has revealed that the defeat of Wimbledon 2023 final still hurts.

The current world number two suffered a rather surprising defeat to Spain’s young tennis star Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the third Grand Slam of the year in a five-set thriller with a score of 1–6, 7–6(8–6), 6–1, 3–6, 6–4.

Talking about that, Ivanisevic, who also won Wimbledon back in 2001, stated that defeat hurts but also applauds the current world number one.

"I'm still a little sad,” he said. “But it's harder for Novak [Djokovic] because he was on the court... But kudos to Carlos, he showed the world what kind of tennis player he is. A five-set match that went in his favor, but Novak took the chances you have to in such a final."

The 51-year-old further went on to stated that Alcaraz can have an incredible future if he continues to develop.

"He is a mixture of all three [Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic] and he has an incredible future ahead of him,” said Ivanisevic. “If he continues like this, he has an incredible future ahead of him. He does it all with a smile, and we have the opportunity to watch him in the last three editions of this tournament."

That defeat, which was Djokovic’s first at the Centre Court in 10 years, halted his march towards equaling former world number one Switzerland’s Roger Federer’s record of eight Wimbledon titles.

As things stand, the 36-year-old is the joint second-most successful player in the history of the competition, having won the title seven times, equal to former world number one America’s Pete Sampras.