Novak Djokovic 3.0: Tennis great’s latest re-invention already underway with ruthless coaching move

Goran Ivanisevic and Novak Djokovic celebrations

Are we about to see Novak Djokovic 3.0? Or maybe we are already at Novak Djokovic 4.0 or 5.0.

If you were one of those who thought Djokovic would just quietly accept that time has caught up with him and meekly fade away then you have another think coming.

Djokovic has never been one to shy away from making difficult decisions when it comes to his coaching team as he has done it before with Marian Vajda, Boris Becker and Andre Agassi.

His decision to part ways with Goran Ivanisevic after one the most successful partnerships in tennis history shows just how unrelenting the tennis great is when it comes to striving to not only remain at the top of the game, but to continue to rule the roost.

Following a dominant 2023 season that saw him win three of the four Grand Slams, the ATP Finals, two ATP Masters 1000 titles and finish the year at No 1 for a record eighth time, Djokovic’s form has been iffy so far this season.

And while losing three matches in the space of three months is no big deal for most players, the 24-time Grand Slam winner is not most players and has decided it is time for change again.

READ MORE: Novak Djokovic announces shock departure of long-term coach – ‘Thanks for everything my friend’

He has gone down the road before as he didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger after three successful years with Becker as he announced at the end of the 2016 season that he had parted ways with the German.

After struggling with form and injuries in 2017, he split from long-time coach Vajda in April with tennis great Andre Agassi joining a few weeks later.

Agassi was unable to turn Djokovic’s form around and his stint came to an end after a year as Vajda returned with Ivanisevic joining in 2019 and together they dominated the sport.

Djokovic won eight Grand Slams from 2018 until Vajda’s departure in May 2022 with the Slovakian confirming that the tennis great wanted to “reduce” his team and “have only one coach” and in the end “he chose Goran Ivanisevic”.

The Djokovic-Ivanisevic combination started with the Wimbledon title in 2022 before they completed Career Grand Slam as a team in 2023 by winning the Australian Open, French Open and US Open.

Most thought the partnership would continue until Djokovic retired, but perhaps the tennis great feels there is something missing from his game at the moment and Ivanisevic is not the man to give him the edge over young rivals like Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

In his farewell message to his great friend, Djokovic admitted that when he brought Ivanisevic in he wanted to “innovate and bring some serve magic” to his armour.

In 2022 it was already mission accomplished as Ivanisevic felt the Djokovic serve had become one of his best weapons.

“If you look so many matches, five, 10 years ago, his serve always saved him somehow. But now he’s even better,” the Croatian said. “Now he always wants to improve. Especially this week, amazing percentage, amazing precision of the serve. Every time he needed to, he hit an unbelievable first serve. His second serve is much better.”

The innovation doesn’t stop with Djokovic no matter what stage of his career and the next big question is whether he will ask Vajda to return to his camp or if he will go down a completely new road in terms of his next coach or maybe even go it alone.