AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 29, 2023

Goran Ivanisevic

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Goran, where do you rank this win among all the titles that you've helped Novak win over the years?

GORAN IVANISEVIC: I think I have to agree with him like he said, definitely the best one, not only because all what happened last year and he came back, but last three weeks, they were extremely hard. I thought I saw everything in 2021 when he won here with the abdominal tear. This one was unbelievable.

To play like this every day better and better, it's just impressive.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. He said he thought maybe he wouldn't be able to play here. How close was he to potentially not playing the tournament?

GORAN IVANISEVIC: Let me put it like this. I don't say 100%, but 97% of the players, on Saturday when you get results of the MRI, you go straight to the referee office and pull out of the tournament. But not him.

He is from other space. His brain is working different. I'm with him four years, but it still sometimes how his brain work.

He gave everything. 77 therapies a day. Every day was kind of better and better. I didn't expect this. Honestly, I was shocked. Okay, first two rounds okay, but then against Dimitrov was very scared.

But he got through and in the end he won the tournament.

Q. When we spoke to Novak the other day, he said that not having his dad present for the semifinal had affected him. Can you give us insight how difficult it must have been for him emotionally?

GORAN IVANISEVIC: It is difficult. You could see today okay, but match against Tommy, he was more emotional. 5-1, 5-All. Novak doesn't do that. When he leads 5-1, he wins 6-1. He doesn't get back to 5-All. Doesn't matter who he plays.

But you know things happens. Fortunately he was able to win a tournament even with all this craziness around. It's unbelievable achievement.

Q. You've worked with Novak for a while. Have you learnt anything new about him during this tournament?

GORAN IVANISEVIC: You learn all the times. He's getting crazier and crazier, I can say that (laughter). It's no end of the field of craziness. In a positive way, I mean (smiling).

I mean, the guy is unbelievable. I don't know how to describe in the words. I thought I saw everything, and then you see this. Probably I going to see something else.

Unbelievable. I know he's emotional on the court. Doesn't matter. We talk, he talks. But, like I said before, how he won the tournament, how he played also today in the moments was good tennis, in the moments was bad tennis, but doesn't matter, overall he won 10 Australian Open.

Battle of Spain against Serbia, it's like a handball match. 22-22 for the moment. Now it's going to be interesting this year.

Q. He's always apologizing to you after these matches, saying how difficult he is to deal with. Is he really that difficult? What is he referring to?

GORAN IVANISEVIC: I mean, I can talk about that for 10 days. I mean, I was tennis player. I was also little bit crazy. I understand how he feels. I understand the emotions.

This is final of Grand Slam. I don't mind. If this going to help him, we already talk it so many times. I don't mind.

I told him, You can tell me whatever you want, but you have to win, otherwise you have a problem. As long as he wins, is okay (smiling).

But he's okay. Last year was not easy. Nothing is easy. But he's the same like if you are a coach, football coach of Real Madrid, you need to have the pressure. If you don't win one, two games, you get fired.

In his tennis life, it's nice to be in the final, but in the end you need to win. Only Grand Slam counts, only record counts. But it's a good challenge. I already used to it. I am four years there in the team. It's okay. I'm used to it.

Q. Have you been especially impressed today by his forehand?

GORAN IVANISEVIC: I've been impressed by his forehand all this year. Actually we work a lot. Let's say in Torino he start to hit the forehands, but we work a lot in the pre-season. Adelaide was not bad.

But here kind of when he got injured, he needed to be more aggressive. He stepped up and he was smacking forehands unbelievable. Really probably the best two weeks of forehands that I ever saw him in his life. I mean, I never saw him hitting better forehands before. He was really going for it.

Today was probably I have to say maybe the worst forehands from all these matches. But still, when he needed, he played great tennis and he was hitting good forehands.

Q. You mentioned 22-22 between Novak and Rafa. Novak is nearly 36 now. You have some young players that are 19. How long do you think he can stay at his top level?

GORAN IVANISEVIC: Definitely two, three more years. The way he's taking care of his body, the way he approach about everything, the food, it's amazing. It's unbelievable the level.

We talking about young guys. They're here, it's great for tennis, great for the future of tennis. But you still have these two guys battling. This was Novak home court, and now we going next one to Rafa home court in this handball match of 22-22.

Yes, they are coming, Alcaraz, unbelievable. Still, if Rafa steps on the court on the French Open, for me he's always the favorite to win the tournament.

There are a lot of guys who can beat him, also Novak. But Rafa, it's 14 times to win a tournament. You cannot even win a tournament at home in the (indiscernible) 14 times in a row. It's amazing. They really push each other.

It's good that we have a lot of young guys. We have Stefanos who is going to win Grand Slam definitely one day because he's just amazing player.

Q. Can you talk us through after the match when Novak came up to the box, we've never really seen him that emotional after a slam win, did that shock you?

GORAN IVANISEVIC: Actually, yes and no. Everything, he's keeping everything inside. Sometimes you have to explode. Surprisingly he was very quiet for one set and a half. He didn't say one word for the final. He letted everything out.

It was very emotional, very emotional for us, very emotional for him. It's a great achievement. It was really tough three weeks for him. He managed to overcome everything.

Q. You talked about the French Open. How special would it be if Novak was able to get the 23rd?

GORAN IVANISEVIC: I said eight or nine years ago that Novak and Rafa will go over Roger. Back then they were, No. People were looking at me like strangely. But we have 22-22. Two unbelievable competitors, two unbelievable tennis players, what they did for the tennis.

I'm looking forward. Looking forward, honestly, for both of them to be super healthy, then battle is there. And with the young guys who going to try to find backdoors to sneak and try to do something.

But still these two guys, they going to have last word to say there.