"With Goran, less is more" - Djokovic gives insight into successful collaboration with Ivanisevic prior to Australian Open final

Sunday, 02 February 2020 at 07:00

Defending Champion Novak Djokovic has been on a tear over the past 6 months, from capturing his 5th Wimbledon title last summer to winning the ATP Cup for Team Serbia a few weeks ago.

He will attempt to defend his Australian Open title on Sunday when he faces Austrian Dominic Thiem in the final. The Serb also has the opportunity to reclaim the World No.1 ranking from Rafael Nadal if he succeeds.

Although Djokovic has been in this position before, he will be experiencing it for the first time with co-coach Goran Ivanisevic. The Croatian was added to Djokovic's camp right before Wimbledon 2019 and the two have blended seamlessly ever since.

Having coached Marin Cilic, Tomas Berdych and Milos Raonic in the past, Ivanisevic was excited to be approached by Djokovic on the prospect of coaching him alongside long-time coach Marian Vajda.

“It doesn’t get better than this. When the No.1 calls you, I compare it to football, Real Madrid calls you, like he calls you,” Ivanisevic said. “For me it’s kind of a reward, it means I did something well in the past.”

Ivanisevic was effusive with praise for his student, claiming that the 16-time Grand Slam winner was possibly the greatest of all time.

“For the past nine years he is, by statistics, by winning Grand Slams, by every… by winning matches, he is by far number one,” said the 48-year-old Hall of Famer.

Ivanisevic realized that in spite of all he has achieved, the Serbian still wanted to improve and assisted him in tweaking his game. This is quite evident in his serve, as Djokovic has won 82 per cent of his first-serve points this fortnight and was broken just seven times through six matches. He has also accumulated 70 aces, the 6th highest in the tournament.

Djokovic himself is pleased with how well his coaches work together, and seems to have the utmost respect for his mentor.

“Goran, his philosophy has always been less is more, kind of giving the right information to the player, then understanding how a player can actually benefit from that,” said the seven-time Australian Open champion. “He likes to simplify things. It's working well.”

Arthur Ajayi

Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.

As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.

With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.

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