One of the major coaching moves for 2025 is former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina hiring former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic as her coach.
Ivanisevic has come clear ideas on what he is trying to instill in Rybakina. He wants to see her finishing more points at the net and showing more emotion while in the heat of battle on the court:
Goran said during the Tennis Channel telecast of United Cup: “It’s my first official WTA match. We worked a couple weeks in Dubai. A little bit on the serve. Trying to push her to come to the net more. She has a big game and can finish the point much earlier than she was usually doing. It’s a process. She needs to put in her head that she can play more aggressively, come to the net, and finish some points with the volleys.”
When asked if Rybakina will try to exploit the benefits of emotional adrenaline, the Croatian legend and former coach of Novak Djokovic replied: “Definitely not going to see her breaking racquets but hopefully she does show more emotion. She’s a very different person and very calm. But l’ve been trying to put some emotion and I think it’s going to help her game.”
This is interesting because Goran was not known as a very positive emotion player during his career which was highlighted by the 2001 Wimbledon final win (as a wildcard) vs. Patrick Rafter 63 36 63 26 97. Goran was more of a stoic and robotic player on court, so this indicates he has learned since retiring the value of emotional adrenaline, which according to boxing manager great Emanuel Steward, can lift an athlete to a higher level of performance.
Rybakina prevailed in her first United Cup match vs Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 62 63 and Rybakina teamed up with Andrei Shevchenko to win the mixed doubles match 10-7 in the third set tiebreaker.
Elena Rybakina · Goran Ivanisevic
