Goran Ivanisevic explains what is stopping Stefanos Tsitsipas from performing on grass, ‘he has lots of room to improve’

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Stefanos Tsitsipas is beginning his new coaching partnership with Goran Ivanisevic for the grass court season.

Tsitsipas and Ivanisevic will have their first tournament together at the Halle Open, the ATP 500 event where Jannik Sinner is the top seed.

However, something has happened to Tsitsipas for the first time since 2018 that leaves him in unfamiliar territory.

Ivanisevic has high hopes for Tsitsipas, but has now admitted that there is a lot of work that needs to be done on his grass court game.

Goran Ivanisevic explains what is stopping Stefanos Tsitsipas from performing on grass

Tsitsipas‘ new coach knows what it takes to perform on grass, with Ivanisevic winning Wimbledon in 2001.

Ivanisevic has also been a Wimbledon winning coach, helping Novak Djokovic to three titles between 2019 and 2022.

However, he is now taking over the role of Tsitsipas, who has never surpassed the fourth round of Wimbledon.

Ahead of their first tournament together at the Halle Open, Ivanisevic spoke to the ATP Tour about what he thinks Tsitsipas needs to improve on grass.

The Croatian suggested that Tsitsipas’ main issue is his mindset, but believes that his player has the weapons to achieve good results on the surface.

“There is a lot to work with,” said Ivanisevic. “Generally, he doesn’t have good results on grass. I don’t know why. It’s only [mental].

“If you put in your head, ‘I cannot play on grass’, then you cannot play well, because grass doesn’t forgive you anything. If you get pissed on grass, the grass gives you it back. You have to be nice to the grass.

“So there’s lots of room to improve there. I can’t say it will happen this week for sure, but generally he can play well on grass.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ Career Record on grass

Grass is by far Tsitsipas’ worst-performing surface, with just a 56% win rate on it throughout his entire career.

Despite this, the Greek has actually won one grass court title that came at the Mallorca Championships in 2022.

However, the former world number three has been unable to come anywhere near the title at Wimbledon and last year lost in the second round to Emil Ruusuvuori.

Tsitsipas will be hoping to improve his grass court record under the guidance of Ivanisevic, as he takes on Italian Luciano Darderi in his first round match at the Halle Open.