Goran Ivanišević, one of the best tennis players of his generation and the first Croatian to win Wimbledon, is the new guest of the third episode of the third season of the series "(The) Failure of the Champion: Special with Slaven Bilić".
Known for his incredible serves and fighting spirit on the court, he carried that passion into his later coaching career, which he discussed on the show, among other topics.
The beginnings at Firule, Novak Djokovic, going to Australia and the famous Wimbledon in 2001, are just some of the topics opened by hosts Slaven Bilić and Goran Ivanišević in the first part of the famous show.
Goran Ivanišević, a famous athlete who went from Firule in Split to Wimbledon, is one of the rare professional athletes who left a deep mark on the world of sports in both segments of his career - playing and coaching. He was the coach of Novak Đoković, the best tennis player of all time, as well as Jelena Rybakina, the seventh-ranked tennis player in the world, with whom he briefly collaborated.
At the beginning of his conversation with Slaven Bilić, he referred to that period and the decision to withdraw from her team.
"Now I'm on a forced break or on leave again. It was a bit strange... I won't talk much about it, but I can say that it's a bit of a sad and strange story. I consider her, even before I became her coach, at least for me, to be by far the best tennis player in the world. She plays the most beautifully, the simplest, and I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, some things happened off the court that I couldn't control and I didn't want to be a part of that and part of that story, and then I decided that it was best to retire. I wish her all the best in her career."
Speaking about his coaching experience, he emphasized that he always believed he could be a good coach, he had people around him from whom he could learn from since he was young, and later from his coaches. However, it took a certain period after his playing career, as he emphasized, four to five years of "nothing" to prove to himself that he was ready for it and to move in that direction.
"Somehow everything turned out well when it started with Marin Čilić. And his winning the US Open, after that Tomaš Berdych, then Miloš Raonić and then the cream, the icing on the cake, as we would say, the greatest tennis player of all time. It was a turbulent five years, it was interesting, it was incredible," Ivanišević said of the period when he was Novak Đoković's coach.
Why are the best - the best?
When Bilić asked how a tennis coach could "change" a shot made by Djokovic, who is the best tennis player in the world and one of the greatest athletes in the world, how to "convince" him, Ivanišević replied that he was a slightly different type of coach:
"Tennis is an individual sport. In fact, it's a gladiator sport, it just doesn't have contact. And you have to be at 300% every day. No one asks you about your health, and when you come to see such a genius, I think Novak is a genius, because what was good for him today, is no longer good tomorrow. Tomorrow we have to do it all over again. It has to be better, we always look for something better. I'm not for him to have to change anything. You have to manage to make the best possible out of what you have."
He also gave his view on why they are the best – the best.
"Why are the best the best?! Why was Roger Federer the best, why was Novak the best? He's a man of flesh and blood too. He said it himself, he has a stomachache before every match, he's nervous during the match, but I can see that. At that exact moment you can see that the other guy is going to get eaten by nervousness. He's not eaten by nervousness. He's always at his level and he comes out on top. That's why he's the best. That's why there's this ranking of people who deal better with nervousness, who deal better with pressure, who deal better with these things. He's like that, one person like that is born in a hundred thousand years!"
He continued:
"He had these two guys pushing each other. Roger and Rafa made each other better players. It was a triangle of the three of them pulling each other. First there were these two and then, out of nowhere, this guy, who I've known since he was fourteen, came along and messed up their whole Western theory. It all fell apart for them."
Looking back on five years of working with tennis great Novak Djokovic, he compared it to coaching Real Madrid in football.
"When he called me, it was like Real Madrid was calling you and asking you if you wanted to come. I mean, I'm already in Madrid. I haven't even packed my bags. I'll call home, I'm in Madrid. He's an institution and the fact that he called me means a lot to me."
Pteorica in the Top 10 and a small club
Ivanišević also shared his tennis story, growing up in Split and his first steps in Firule, where he developed his love for the sport. Bilić asked him how it was that, in the 1980s, he chose tennis in Firule, among other popular sports in Split:
"Because I was born there. My grandfather lived there on Zenta, I learned to swim at POŠK... I grew up there... My father played tennis, I spent the whole summer at my grandparents' and tennis was three meters away for me... I think I chose the right sport. Tennis is my first love, that's it... As soon as I picked up that racket".
He particularly highlighted the incredible success of the Split club, which has produced as many as five players in the Top 10 of world tennis:
"It's a world wonder. You have Mario Ančić, Nikola Pilić, Željko Franulović, Mate Pavić, me, Jelena Kostanić, Petra Martić... Five players in the top 10 from one club with those five, six courts... I mean, that club should actually be a museum."
Professor's dad quits job for his career
The greatest influence on him at that time was his father Srđan, who left his job as a university professor to devote himself to his son's career. He told him:
"You're better at your job than I am at mine..."
Bilić asked him if he felt a responsibility at that time, a burden on his back that the future of the family was on him, considering that tennis is an expensive sport, his father sacrificed his career, they sold their apartment, his sister got sick when he was 17:
"Well... I went to Australia on that plane with no money, no nothing, no plan. And the option of failure didn't exist. It wasn't even in my head to think that I wouldn't fail. I had to succeed. It was, simply, for my sister. I needed money for treatment... It was like I wasn't thinking about myself. If I had thought about myself, I might not have succeeded. That was simply it. A mission, sister, a mission to save something, her health... I came to Australia and everything started. My life changed completely there."
Wimbledon rain
Another unmissable topic was Wimbledon in 2001, when he reached the title as the 125th player in the world. He recalled key moments and the incredible story of the rain that saved him in the semi-finals against Tim Henman:
"I have to say that the rain saved me. When there was a break, it was simply better than me, I didn't know what to do and that rain came. It didn't come by chance. It came with a purpose. It came at that exact moment. I knew that day when we didn't return to the field, when Alan Mills came and said - boys, you go home, we continue tomorrow. I knew that was it. I told the coach - that's it, we're winning... I was getting better and better, and he was getting worse and worse."
This was the first part of the conversation with Goran Ivanišević.
Bonus video:
