“Novak Djokovic is very demanding, something new has to happen every day” – Ex-coach Goran Ivanisevic

Novak Djokovic’s former coach Goran Ivanisevic has revealed that his former pupil is very demanding and wants something new to happen every day. Djokovic recently confirmed his separation with Ivanisevic and the Croatian revealed the challenges of coaching the Serbian.

Goran Ivanisevic joined Djokovic’s team back in 2018. Back then, the veteran had a total of 12 Grand Slams. Under Ivanisevic’s tutelage, Djokovic won another dozen Majors and he is still going strongly at the top level.

After parting ways with Goran Ivanisevic, Djokovic has joined hands with compatriot Nenad Zimonjic. Djokovic, who is yet to win a single title in the ongoing season, will hope to kick start his partnership with Zimonjic on a high by defending his Roland Garros title.

“Well, when you train Novak Djokovic, anything other than winning the title at any tournament is a failure. That’s a lot of pressure to deal with. Novak is very demanding. Something new has to happen every day, he always wants to get better. If you can’t handle it, it’s better not to take the job at all,” Ivanisevic said in an interview with Blick.

“The language certainly helped me – we had no barrier between us. With Novak it’s like this: you only have a few seconds to explain something to him. He then wants to know 15 things from you at once, but you only have three seconds to do it. So you have to try to summarize everything in some clever way. It can be hard, but I enjoyed it with Novak,” he added.

Ivanisevic added that he and Djokovic are similar and he was always ready for the Serbian’s reactions as he knew him well.

“I always had good tablets,” Ivanisevic joked. “No, seriously: you have pressure every day in this industry. But I was completely okay with it. You get used to the circumstances.

“It helped that we both came from the Balkans. Novak and I are similar. I was always prepared for his possible reactions,” he added.

The Roland Garros will begin on May 20.