Patrick Mouratoglou Slams Goran Ivanisevic for Publicly Criticizing Stefanos Tsitsipas After Wimbledon Exit

Stefanos Tsitsipas is currently going through a very rough patch in his career and he appointed Goran Ivanisevic to become his coach, but things have seemingly gotten worse. The Croatian coach heavily criticized the Greek star during a recent interview. Patrick Mouratoglou has now disagreed with Ivanisevic’s public criticism of the 26-year-old star.

Tsitsipas failed to reach the semifinals of any clay-court tournament, despite being the 2024 Monte Carlo Masters champion and Barcelona runners-up. He ended the clay season crashing out of the French Open in the second round after losing to Matteo Gigante in four sets. That saw him drop outside the Top 20 of the ATP rankings for the first time in over three years.

That led him to appoint Ivanisevic as his coach as he hoped to bounce back right away during the grass-court season. However, the former World No.3 only managed to win one match before American star Alex Michelsen knocked him out of the Terra Wortmann Open with Ivanisevic in his coaching box.

At Wimbledon, Tsitsipas suffered a back injury during a training session, and in his opening match, he was losing 3-6, 2-6 to qualifier Valentin Royer and then retired before the start of the third set. That led Ivanisevic to openly criticize Tsitsipas’ preparation for the tournament, stressing that he was never fit for the competition.

Nonetheless, Patrick Mouratoglou, who first spotted Tsitsipas when he was 14, was not pleased with Ivanisevic’s statements. During an interview with Tennis Majors, the legendary coach slammed the former Wimbledon champion for his comments and added that it wasn’t the way to coach a player:

That’s the opposite of how I understand coaching. You can discuss your player publicly, but not by throwing him to the wolves. I’m not familiar with the details, but I would be very surprised if they could work together effectively after Goran’s comments. You have to build trust with your player, and this is not the way.

Ivanisevic parted ways with Novak Djokovic after six years in March 2024. The Croatian coach helped Djokovic win 12 Grand Slam titles during their time together. The Croatian coach was then hired by Elena Rybakina last November, but their partnership only lasted for less than two months.

Patrick Mouratoglou says Stefanos Tsitsipas knows he’s not playing his best tennis

Stefanos Tsitsipas has been criticized in the past for his sometimes lack of determination on the court. He was among the 1990s generation of players predicted to dominate the men’s circuit, but has been far from that in the past two years. Apart from his success at the 2024 Monte Carlo Masters and 2025 Dubai Tennis Championships, his performances have been dismal.