Goran Ivanisevic exclusive interview: 'Nick Kyrgios needs to stop picking on Novak Djokovic and show him respect'

Given his propensity for smashing rackets and self-flagellation, one could be forgiven for thinking Goran Ivanisevic might view Nick Kyrgios as something of a kindred spirit. Ivanisevic after all was once so incensed during a match in Brighton that he destroyed all his rackets in fury and had to forfeit. So liable was he to implode in fact that Ivanisevic divided his personality into two characters: "Good Goran" and "Bad Goran".

But even if Ivanisevic did initially sympathise with Kyrgios, the Aussie’s relentless baiting of Novak Djokovic, whom Ivanisevic coaches, has eroded his goodwill. Kyrgios, you may recall, described Djokovic in May as “cringeworthy” and having “a sick obsession with wanting to be liked.” He has made a number of similar digs since.

“It’s bad because I don’t think Novak did anything wrong to him,” Ivanisevic tells Telegraph Sport. “He decides to pick on Novak for no reason. You can come on the court and do whatever you want, but you need to respect your opponent.

“He speaks a lot about Novak, only he knows the reason. But he should just take care of himself because he should be in the top five, he could win a grand slam. He’s never going to win a grand slam with the approach he has now. If he could change it that would be great for him and for tennis.”

Ivanisevic is well-placed to offer this kind of advice. Firstly, having coached Tomas Berdych, Milos Raonic and Marin Cilic - whom he guided to the 2014 US Open title - he has seen first-hand how tough it is to break up the Djokovic-Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal cabal.

Then there is his own career, which for so long looked like being defined by near-misses. Three times a losing Wimbledon finalist, Ivanisevic instead became one of the tournament's most popular ever champions when he finally won the title in 2001 as a wild card ranked No 125 in the world.

It was often suggested that the euphoria of that win over Pat Rafter - less than 24 hours after edging Tim Henman in a three-day semi-final - made up for all the anguish Ivanisevic had suffered before.

He doesn’t quite see it that way, however: “I achieved only around 80 per cent of my potential,” says Ivanisevic, a former world No 2 who as well as coaching Djokovic is a regular competitor at the annual Champions Tennis veterans event at the Royal Albert Hall. “If I could go back I would change a lot about my approach. There were so many things I didn’t achieve.

“I could win many more Wimbledons and other grand slams. ‘92 Wimbledon for example, ‘98 I should have won. And who knows if you win a grand slam early, you might win more.

“I was very strange, I played my best tennis always in the semi-finals. I had this theory that it’s not good to lose in the semi-finals, but it’s ok to lose in the finals, which was very wrong.

“And a number of times I beat the beat the best players in the semi-finals and then in the finals I played like a p----.

“I lost a lot of big matches, especially finals and always against [Pete] Sampras. Always the same way - stupidity. I should get an award for idiot of the century from lots of my matches. But I can’t go back.”

Instead, Ivanisevic’s focus is on the present, where he is treated to seeing a master at work. Working so closely with Djokovic partly explains why Ivanisevic finds Kyrgios’s comments so unpalatable.

“You cannot have a bigger privilege and honour than coaching Novak,” Ivanisevic, now 48, says. “He listens, he talks. He asks, which is a quality sometimes people don’t have. Some of the other people I’ve coached for instance.”

Ivanisevic doesn't elaborate on who he is referring to, and returning to Djokovic says: “What’s also surprised me is how strong he is mentally, how serious he is in practice every single day. It’s unbelievable. It’s a pleasure to be there, and makes my life as a coach very easy.”

Ivanisevic also believes that Djokovic is comfortably superior to both of his Big Three rivals: “For me, let’s put it this way, if they are all playing their best in 10 matches, I would say at least eight matches Novak wins. He’s the most complete player of the three.”

With that in mind, who will end their career with the most grand slams? Djokovic, who is currently sidelined with a shoulder injury and has 16 majors to his name, Federer on 20, or Nadal, whose US Open triumph took him to 19?

“Rafa will definitely win a few more French Opens and will go over 20 for sure,” Ivanisevic replies. “Novak will go over 20. Roger, you can’t under-estimate. He’ll still be thinking about Wimbledon, when people were already saying he had 21. That hurts, but Roger will hope for one more for sure.”

In general, Ivanisevic believes the Big Three will continue to dominate for at least the next couple of years. He has been impressed by youngsters like the beaten US Open finalist Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, but considers them someway below Djokovic, Federer and Nadal.

This battle of the generations - given a shot in the arm by Medvedev’s New York heroics against Nadal - should liven up a men’s tour that has been in danger of becoming a touch predictable.

Ivanisevic is excited by the next few years, but feels tennis should take steps to make itself more appealing to a wider audience. “You need to think about what kind of sport we want,” he says. “People say it’s boring and then when someone breaks a racket they are booing. Why are people booing? Players are just showing emotions, and they should not be fined for breaking a racket. If you break it, you can just go and change it, that’s it. I just don’t think people should get fined for every bloody thing.

“Then you have Hawk-Eye, which is a good and a bad thing because now after the bad mistakes of the linespeople you don’t have conversations with the umpires and linespeople anymore.

“Hawk-Eye is great overall, but I would get rid of a lot of things, like the let, and the five-minute warm-up - the stupidest thing in tennis by far. You should be warm before the match, and you actually get cold during the warm-up.”

John McEnroe is among those who shares this view, not that Ivanisevic has ever worried too much about the approval of others. On and off the court, he remains very much his own man.

• Goran Ivanisevic will be making his next Champions Tennis appearance at the Royal Albert Hall between 28th November – 1st December 2019. Tickets are available to buy at https://www. championstennis.co.uk/