"I needed a U-turn after Novak": Goran Ivanisevic delves into the unknown and 'something different' with Elena Rybakina

Goran Ivanisevic shocked the tennis world when he was announced as the new coach of Elena Rybakina over the past week in a move that sees two former Wimbledon champions come together.

Speaking to Sasa Ozmo for Tennis Majors, Ivanisevic explained the reasoning behind the move to join Rybakina and it is about testing himself in a different environment. A six year partnership with Novak Djokovic gleamed much success and saw the Serbian at the peak of his powers.

But he said himself when he was sacked that he wanted a new challenge whether that was a young player or similar. Someone that ultimately he could mould into a different player and given that Rybakina who has had mooted issues with her former coach is seen as a scary talent when she puts it together, it could be a match made in tennis heaven.

“When we spoke back in April (after the split with Djokovic), I told you that I would take a longer break, and secondly – that I won’t take a job that doesn’t make me curious or doesn’t represent a challenge,” Ivanisevic told Tennis Majors.

“After Novak, it’s really hard to coach anyone, so I needed something completely different. When you’re the coach of the greatest player of all time, you just need something new. So the choice was some young player or something completely different, and this ’completely different’ was the WTA Tour.”

"There were some other offers, but I think I chose the right one for me – because of Elena’s playing style and potential, but also because of her personality. Elena is calm and I can’t wait to get going. I think it’s going to be great."

"I don’t know her too well personally, but my friend Zule is her fitness coach – we worked together with Tomas Berdych – and the word around the Tour generally is that she is a great person. Game-wise, she has got a big serve, tall, strong hitter who plays aggressively, she won Wimbledon just like me. I feel I can teach her something. I mean, she is already No 5 in the world, but I think she can win more Slams, that’s for sure.

But without being involved with her yet, he can't pick out aspects to improve but from a personal element, he wanted to test himself in women's tennis.

"Firstly, we need to get to know each other better. I won’t go too much into detail, but she’s got room for improvement in every aspect of the game. She can achieve better results. It’s going to be interesting. I know that many people found it odd and that people were surprised by our collaboration, but not me – I needed a U-turn after Novak. I won everything with Novak, so I am extremely looking forward to this new challenge. Honestly, during my time on the ATP Tour, I never pictured myself on the women’s tour, but I don’t see myself in men’s tennis at the moment.

"I always liked to watch women’s matches as well, I have been on the Tour for 13 years now. The best four or five players have been there for some time now, some younger players are coming up, but the top 10 is more or less similar for a while now. I mean – tennis is tennis, men’s or women’s, forehand, backhand, serve… At the end of the day, I think it’s the same, although everyone is telling me that the WTA Tour is completely different. I am going to see my ’old gang’ though, since most of the events are in the same cities for both Tours. Once again, I am glad to take up something new, to see how much it’s different, why it’s different… I need to experience it first-hand."