Goran Ivanisevic says what has changed about Wimbledon since he retired which he finds ‘crazy’

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Goran Ivanisevic played at the Wimbledon Championships on 15 occasions throughout his career.

Ivanisevic finally won Wimbledon in 2001, making history as the only wildcard in history to win a major title.

More recently he has turned to coaching, with Ivanisevic mentoring Novak Djokovic until last year, winning 10 Grand Slams together, including three Wimbledon titles.

After splitting with Djokovic, Ivanisevic began coaching Elena Rybakina ahead of the 2025 season.

However, after just two tournaments with the former Wimbledon champion, Ivanisevic left Rybakina’s team.

Goran Ivanisevic says what he now finds ‘crazy’ about Wimbledon

Last year saw the singles titles at Wimbledon won by Barbora Krejcikova and defended by Carlos Alcaraz.

Both of these players have also won Roland Garros, with Ivanisevic speaking on football manager Slaven Bilic’s podcast about how much he thinks the Wimbledon courts have slowed down since he retired.

“The good thing is that the courts are more alike. Clay, grass, hard. It’s all balanced out,” explained Ivanisevic. “So adaptation is easier. Only on grass, running is tricky.

“Statistically, which I think is crazy, in recent years longer rallies happen at Wimbledon than Roland Garros. It looks fast on TV with all the sliding but grass is extremely slow. The fastest slam is Australia. That is why it’s the best. It rewards aggressive tennis. It rewards you when you attack, you win the point.

Bilic then asked Ivanisevic if he thinks that he would have a better chance of winning Roland Garros than Wimbledon in 2025, but the Croatian admitted that the grass courts are still the fastest surface.

“Well, I mean it is faster,” responded the former world number two. “In my time grass was like playing on ice.”

Goran Ivanisevic’s Results at Wimbledon vs the other Grand Slam tournaments

Wimbledon was by far Ivanisevic’s strongest Grand Slam tournament, having won over double the amount of matches compared to the other three majors.

Ivanisevic’s best Grand Slam outside of Wimbledon in terms of win percentage was Roland Garros, but it was the US Open where he achieved his best result by reaching the semi-finals.

Whereas at Wimbledon, Ivanisevic had already reached three finals before his famous title victory in 2001.

The final match of Ivanisevic’s career fittingly came at Wimbledon in 2004, when he reached the third round before losing to third seed Lleyton Hewitt.