Goran Ivanisevic believes his former charge Novak Djokovic has already found the right man to be his next coach by brining Nenad Zimonjic to his side.
Just under 5 years after partnering with each other, Djokovic announced last week his split with Ivanisevic. During that period, Djokovic bagged 10 major titles, two ATP year-end championships and 7 ATP Masters 1000 crowns among other individual records.
No apparent reason was given for the surprising split with the World No. 1 just issuing a statement: “Goran and I decided to stop working together a few days ago” adding that “our on-court chemistry had its ups and downs, but our friendship was always rock solid”.
Djokovic later revealed that he is not sure who will fill the vacant role after Ivanisevic’s departure and nor has he decided even if there will be a coach at all but he has started to work with countryman Serbian Zimonjic.
The 3-time GS men’s double champion has plenty of experience working with Serbian as he led Serbia to the 2020 ATP Cup glory and had served two stints as the Davis Cup captain for his nation. Ivanisevic fells Zimonjic is the right person to join 24-time Grand Slam champion’s camp.
“I don’t know for how much longer Novak plans to keep on playing, but the perfect person is with him at the moment – Ziki,” he told Sport Klub.
“He is a great friend of mine, we went through a lot together and I love him. He has vast tennis knowledge, but what is most important – he knows Novak really well.
“At the moment, Novak doesn’t need someone completely new, who is yet to get to know him. Let’s say 10 days pass, Novak ‘goes crazy’ and this new coach is left wondering what is going on.
“I have a theory – men from the Balkans can coach anyone, but only someone from this, our region can coach a Balkan player. Marian [Vajda] is Slovak, we’re close and we know each other well. Boris [Becker] also worked well with Novak, but his tennis IQ is off the charts.”
Zimonjic who maintains an illustrious doubles career having won 5 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, has already joined forces with Djokovic for next week’s Monte Carlo Masters and Ivanisevic outlined some of the 47-year-old’s strengths.
“Ziki can help him tennis-wise,” he added. “Novak does know everything already, but it will be refreshing for him to maybe hear the same thing from someone else, with a different approach. Ziki knows Novak’s mentality really well, they collaborated in the Davis Cup as well.”