Ex-Novak Djokovic coach Goran Ivanisevic to coach Elena Rybakina from start of 2025 season

Hyderabad: Former Grand Slam winner Goran Ivanisevic will be coaching Elena Rybakina from the 2025 season. Ivanisevic, who famously coached Novak Djokovic to nine of his 24 Grand Slam wins, left Djokovic’s team in March and has now been hired by 2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina.

This will be the first time Ivanisevic will be coaching a player on the WTA Tour. He had previously coached Djokovic, Marin Cilic, Tomas Berdych and Milos Raonic.

Ivanisevic and World No. 5 Rybakina will start working together from the off-season and into the upcoming season.

The 2022 Wimbledon champion won titles in Brisbane, Abu Dhabi and Stuttgart in 2024. However, injury concerns and illness prevented Rybakina from competing in many tournaments in the second half of the year. The Kazakh-born player, however, qualified for the WTA Finals and has lost her first two matches in the ongoing tournament in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The Croatian coach has incidentally won the Wimbledon as a player in 2001.

Ivanisevic said many people were surprised at him opting to go on the WTA Tour instead of trying to coach players on the ATP Tour. “I know that many people found it odd and that people were surprised by our collaboration, but not me. I needed a U-turn after Novak (Djokovic),” Ivanisevic told Tennis Majors.

The 53-year-old added that he doesn’t see himself coaching on the ATP Tour, at least in the near future. “I won everything with Novak (Djokovic), so I am extremely looking forward to this new challenge. Honestly, during my time on the ATP Tour, I never pictured myself on the women’s tour, but I don’t see myself in men’s tennis at the moment,” he added.

Rybakina had earlier called it quits from her ex-coach Stefano Vukov before the US Open this year. Vukov coached Rybakina for more than five years.