The new coach of Stefanos Tsitsipas believes the Greek’s lacklustre results on grass in previous years were caused by his mentality on the court.
Goran Ivanisevic believes the world No.25 can compete with the best in the world on the grass, despite having limited success on the surface. Tsitsipas has made it through to the fourth round at Wimbledon in two out of seven appearances and has only played one ATP Final on grass in his career. That was at a 250 event in Mallorca three years ago, which he won by beating Roberto Bautista Agut in three sets.
Last year Tsitsipas played two grass-court events in Halle and Wimbledon but lost in the second round at both of them. His career grass-court record is 22 wins against 17 losses.
“There is a lot to work with,” Ivanisevic said during an interview with atptour.com.
“Generally, he doesn’t have good results on grass. I don’t know why. It’s only [mental]. If you put in your head, ‘I cannot play on grass’, then you cannot play well, because grass doesn’t forgive you anything. If you get pissed on grass, the grass gives you it back. You have to be nice to the grass.
“So there’s lots of room to improve there. I can’t say it will happen this week for sure, but generally, he can play well on grass.”
Tsitsipas is hoping his new mentor will help him get back on track after recently dropping out of the world’s top 20 for the first time since 2018. He has failed to win back-to-back matches at his last three tournaments played which were all on the clay. Although, he had better success earlier this year by winning his 12th Tour title in February at the Dubai Tennis Championships. He has also reached the quarter-finals of events in Monte Carlo and Barcelona.
“He is for me a Top 10 player any day,” said Ivanisevic.
“At the moment he lost that edge a little bit. A lot of things happened and now he has to find it back.
“I’m not a magician who can make it work after one week. It’s a long process, but he’s a great player. He was two times in Grand Slam finals and had so many great victories, so I’m not worried that it’s not going to come back.”
Ivanisevic is a former world No.2 player who is best known for winning the 2001 Wimbledon title as a wildcard. After ending his professional career, he worked with Novak Djokovic, Marin Cilic, Tomas Berdych and Milos Raonic before his latest partnership with Tsitsipas.
The first test of the new collaboration will be at this week’s Halle Open where Tsitsipas is unseeded in the draw. He will play Italy’s Luciano Darderi in the first round.
