Novak Djokovic’s former coach, Goran Ivanisevic, recently shared his thoughts on Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner after the pair suffered unexpected losses in 2026. Sinner lost to Djokovic in the Australian Open semifinals, while Alcaraz has been defeated by Jakub Mensik and Sebastian Korda in two different tournaments lately.
The string of recent defeats has started to raise questions about Alcaraz-Sinner’s dominance as the two have won every Grand Slam in the last two years.
However, Ivanisevic pointed out that these losses are not out of the ordinary, as their opponents were quite good. He arrived at the conclusion that these losses don’t indicate any sort of “crisis.”
“They, especially Alcaraz, lost last season in two-set tournaments,” Ivanisevic told Sport Club. “I didn’t expect Korda to beat him in Miami, although I respect him a lot – he’s an amazing tennis player, but he often has problems with injuries. As for Sinner, in Australia he lost to Novak, who you can always lose to. I also watched his loss to Menschik in Doha, because the winner went to Phils. Menschik is also exceptional and at a certain moment he can beat anyone. So… Siner and Alcaraz lost two matches each, but I wouldn’t call it a crisis.”
Ivanisevic also added that if there is any player who can beat both of them in the same Grand Slam, it’s Novak Djokovic.
“At the Grand Slams, I still think that only Novak can beat them, even though it’s not easy to beat both of them in a day and a half,” Ivanisevic added.
Goran Ivanisevic Shares Insight on Novak Djokovic’s Motivation To Continue Playing
Novak Djokovic is 38 and is refusing to go down without a fight. After two years without making it to the Grand Slam finals, the Serb reached the 2026 Australian Open finals against all odds as he finally managed to beat World No. 2, Jannik Sinner. However, he was not able to take down World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in the Grand Slam final at Melbourne Park.
Goran Ivanisevic said the word “impossible” doesn’t exist in Djokovic’s history as he still believes the Serb has what it takes to win the elusive 25th Grand Slam. Ivanisevic mentioned the simple reason that motivates Djokovic to keep playing is his love for the sport.
“I listen to various, let’s say, tennis experts and someone always writes him off,” Ivanisevic said. “I don’t know if those people even watch and understand tennis. Djokovic is driven by the fact that he loves tennis, loves to be on the court, loves competition, loves winning. I also heard that he plans to play until the Olympic Games, and there is still time before that… He will be near the top. Let’s see how many tournaments he played last year, and he is third in the world. No matter how much talk”.
Assuming Ivanisevic has a good read on Djokovic’s mindset, the Serb is not going away anytime soon.
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