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Serena Williams' coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, slammed Goran Ivansevic for criticising his mentee Stefanos Tsitsipas after his opening round loss at Wimbledon. Tsitsipas also lost to Matteo Gigante in three sets to end his French Open campaign early.
Stefanos Tsitsipas has been struggling with his form for quite a while now, recording his earliest defeat since 2018 by losing to Alex Michelsen in the opening round. He came down to No. 12 in the ATP rankings, followed by a quarterfinal loss at the Rotterdam Open and a first-round defeat in Doha. However, he picked up momentum in Dubai and was catapulted to World No. 9 after winning his first title on hard court since 2019.
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The Greek joined Goran Ivanisevic in May, and the coach-mentee witnessed the former's second-round and opening-round losses at the French Open and Wimbledon. In the latter tournament, Ivanisevic was so displeased with Tsitsipas' play that he called him the most 'unprepared' player and even took a jab at his physical health.
Serena Williams' former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, lambasted Ivanisevic for his move and discussed how the Croat signed up for Tsitsipas after knowing about his struggles, but his behaviour doesn't reflect the principles of true coaching.
"Goran going to the press and criticizing his player is not coaching and even more at the time they just started to work together so no trust is made you're already killing the person publicly. When Goran accepts that job he knows that probably Stephanos doesn't do things probably the right way or things need to change or you know but that's the job he arrives at a bad moment. But he knows it's a bad moment it's not a surprise you see the results of Steph for one year. They're not even close to what he was doing before, so he knows it's a difficult moment, you accept or you don't accept it. This difficult moment can create wrong behaviors, and this is what you need to bring back to good behaviors in a way."
Mouratoglou felt that the Croat may have wanted to shed off Tsitsipas' underwhelming results from his shoulders.
"It makes me feel that he's ashamed of the results and he wants to separate himself from Stephanos to say 'It's not me I'm good he is not good'. It's for me it's painful to see it."
Stefanos Tsitsipas peaked at No. 3 in 2021, becoming the highest-ranked Greek player.
Stefanos Tsitsipas shared how his persistent struggles might force him to retire from tennis soon
Stefanos Tsitsipas has been struggling with back issues since 2023, and his early exit at Wimbledon also happened for the same reason. In a post-match press conference, the Greek admitted to having tried several ways to improve his health but has not been successful. If the struggles persist, Tsitsipas declared he would hang up his racket soon.
"I myself, as a person, have a limit at some point, so I'll definitely have to have a final answer as to whether I want to do certain things or not in the next two months. It's going to be tough, but if I see it continue like this, there's no point in competing. If I'm not healthy, if the health isn't there, then your whole tennis life becomes miserable."
Stefanos Tsitsipas' loss was followed by another heartbreak as he and Paula Badosa parted ways for the second time, unfollowing each other on social media and removing the couple's pictures.
