Stefanos Tsitsipas’ coach Goran Ivanisevic sent scathing criticism by Patrick Mouratoglou
Patrick Mouratoglou has proclaimed that he finds it “painful to see” Stefanos Tsitsipas’ coach Goran Ivanisevic publicly criticising the Greek star.
Tsitsipas, who is enduring a difficult 2025 season, appointed Ivanisevic as his new coach at the start of the grass-court season, which will have plenty of events to bet on with BetMGM.
The former world No 3, currently ranked 26th, was beaten by Alex Michelsen in the second round of the ATP 500 event in Halle in his first tournament with Ivanisevic in his coaching box.
At Wimbledon, Tsitsipas was forced to retire due to a back injury when trailing qualifier Valentin Royer 3-6, 2-6 in the opening round.
Ivanisevic, a former coach of Novak Djokovic who has become known for his brutal honesty in interviews, did not hold back in sharing his thoughts on Tsitsipas after his Wimbledon exit.
“It’s simple and it’s not easy. I’ve talked to him many times. If he solves some things outside of tennis, then he has a chance and he’ll return to where he belongs, because he’s too good a player to be out of the top 10,” the 2001 Wimbledon winner told Sport Klub.
“He wants to, but he doesn’t do anything. All, ‘I want, I want’, but I don’t see any progress. I was shocked, I’ve never seen a more unprepared player in my life. With this knee, I’m three times more prepared than him. This is really bad.”
In a video shared on Instagram, Mouratoglou hit out at Ivanisevic and claimed the Croatian is “ashamed” of Tsitsipas’ results.
“Goran going to the press and criticising his player is not coaching,” said the Frenchman, who currently coaches Naomi Osaka. “And even more, at the time they just started to work together, so no trust is made. You’re already killing the person publicly.
“When Goran accepts that job, he knows that Stefanos probably doesn’t do things the right way, or things need to change, or, you know.
“But that’s the job. He arrives at a bad moment, but he knows it’s a bad moment. It’s not a surprise. You see the results of Stef for one year, they’re not even close to what he was doing before.
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“So he knows it’s a difficult moment. You accept or you don’t accept it. This difficult moment can create wrong behaviours. This is what you need to bring back to good behaviours.
“In a way, it makes me feel that he’s ashamed of the results and he wants to separate himself from Stefanos, to say, ‘It’s not me. Me, I’m good. He is not good, that’s his fault.’
“So yeah, it’s… for a coach to see this… for me, it’s painful to see it.”
After his retirement at Wimbledon, Tsitsipas suggested his tennis future could be in doubt if he does not find a solution to the back issue.
“I’ll definitely have to have my final answer on whether I want to do stuff or not in the next couple of months,” the 26-year-old said in his press conference.
“This is going to be hard, but if I see it going in that trajectory, there is no point at competing. If I’m not healthy, and I’ve talked about health so many times, if health is not there, then your whole tennis life becomes miserable.”
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