Apostolos Tsitsipas Triggers War of Words with Goran Ivanisevic Over Brutal Assessment on Stefanos Tsitsipas

Stefanos Tsitsipas had a short-lived coaching partnership with former World No. 1 Goran Ivanisevic before reuniting with his father Apostolos, who served as his long-time coach until their rift last year. Tsitsipas hired Ivanisevic ahead of the grass season and parted ways towards the end of July.

The two we’re quite vocal and straightforward in public about their relationship, with Ivanisevic heavily criticizing Tsitsipas, calling him an “unprepared player” and the Greek tennis star calling Ivanisevic a “dictator”.

In an interview with CLAY, Apostolos disagreed with the approach used by Ivanisevic to berate Stefanos publicly and emphasized the importance and responsibility of the coach to create a conducive environment for the player:

I didn’t like the fact that he expressed his opinions publicly. It might be interesting for the public to know all these things, but the most important thing is to see Stefanos play good tennis. And his team members are responsible for that. We’re teachers. As coaches, we have to create the right environment for the player to develop.

Since the split, the 27-year-old has competed at the Canadian Open, where he faced an opening round exit, the Cincinnati Open, where he lost in the third round, and the ATP 250 tournament in Winston Salem where he faced another opening round exit. He then competed at the US Open, where he lost in five sets to Daniel Altmaier. Apostolos also added:

Goran probably saw something he didn’t like. He should have identified it at the beginning of his professional relationship with Stefanos and discussed it personally with him and his team, telling him what he wanted from him. Goran is a professional, he certainly has his own ideas about how to make things work, but he definitely should have done it personally with Stefanos.

Tsitsipas will next compete at the China Open, where he was runner-up in 2019, losing to Dominic Thiem in three sets.

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ dramatic second-round US Open loss

Stefanos Tsitsipas, who entered the US Open without back-to-back wins since the Barcelona Open in April, made a good start in Flushing Meadows with a four-set win over Alexandre Muller. However, he struggled to overcome Altmaier in the next round. In the fourth set, the German went for an underarm serve and a bit later, Tsitsipas tried to target his opponent with one of his shots.