Goran Ivanisevic, new coach of Elena Rybakinasince a few days ago, gave an interview to Tennis Majors, in which he focused on the recent winner of the Paris Rolex Masters Alexander Zverev, the new ATP No.2, highlighting what the German is still missing to compete with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
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For Novak Djokovic's former coach, the current ranking does not best capture the situation: "Alexander Zverev has too many ups and downs to compete with Sinner and Alcaraz. He plays very well up to a certain point, then comes a match where he really needs to put everything together and there he makes a mistake. No one can compete with Sinner and Alcaraz today. Zverev plays really well but against the Spanish tennis player and the Italian tennis player you always have to be at the top level at every moment of the match and usually he misses these opportunities."
At the press conference after his triumph in Paris-Bercy, the German tennis playersaid: "I'm really looking forward to one last tournament, in Turin, this year. I hope I can finish the season on a high note. I think the goals are quite obvious for everyone. For me, at the moment, it's about improving my game. And I'll let the results come to me. I can't force the results. I think my last loss was just when I came back to the tour, in the Davis Cup against Switzerland. So I could have lost to anyone. For me, left-handed players are maybe more natural than for others, because I grew up with my brother, who is left-handed, and so I only trained with him when I was young. So, for me, topspin, slice serves and everything else are maybe more familiar. In Turin, everyone will be motivated. It's such a special tournament. There's a special atmosphere and feeling when you're there and there are only eight players in the world. Everyone wants to win this title and play good tennis. In the last tournaments of the season, which are normal tournaments, maybe some players are a little more tired, maybe they lack a little motivation, but in Turin it will be different."
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Ivanisevic was confident that Djokovic could win Olympic gold: in the same TennisMajors, the Croatian coach said that was one of the main goals of his career.
"We've talked about it many times. Novak wanted it so much and that's why it was so emotional for everyone. It's incredible, it was written somewhere that it had to happen like this. It's his first trophy this season, an Olympic gold. He had an injury, surgery and a bad final at Wimbledon, but on Sunday we saw what will and desire can do. When Novak plays the way he can, he's the best in the world, no one can match him. Alcaraz is 16 years younger, hits harder and is faster, but Novak made it look like Carlos was neither younger nor faster nor hitting harder. Alcaraz hits hard, but Novak is even harder and I think that surprised Carlos, made him a little nervous. Nole felt that it was time, that he had to take advantage of this opportunity, but considering how crazy he is, I wouldn't be surprised to see him in Los Angeles in 2028 as well. I wish him his 25th Grand Slam. If he plays like this, he's the man to beat at the US Open if he's as motivated as a Paris, in New York he will be the favorite," said the Croatian coach.
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Returning to Alcaraz and Sinner, Ivanisevic expressed his opinion on who is the better of the two, analyzing: "This year Carlos has had some losses that I can't explain. If you take Novak out of the equation, they will dominate on the tour. They are way above everyone else. They are different players. When they are both at their best, I think Sinner is better. He is more consistent throughout the match, Alcaraz can go from incredible shots to some easy mistakes."
In the meantime, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, Rybakina has officially announced that she will be followed by Ivanisevic starting from the 2025 winter preseason: "I can announce that my new coach will be Goran Ivanisevic. He is a great champion, he has a lot of experience. I can't wait to start. It was important for me to improve. We got in touch thanks to the help of agents and we decided to start working together. I certainly wanted to work with him, and I'm sure he wanted it too since his response was positive. So it's fine like this. It's very interesting for me, something new. I've worked with the same coach for a long time, now I want to learn with Goran but I'm really happy. Now we'll see what we can do together."
