Novak Djokovic's sacked coach refusing to forgive tennis icon who 'destroyed' his life

Goran Ivanisevic revealed his two Wimbledon final defeats to Pete Sampras left him feeling like the 14-time Grand Slam champion "destroyed" his life. The Croatian - who coached Novak Djokovic for almost five years - enjoyed a glittering tennis career that saw him win 21 ATP Tour-level singles titles that included winning at SW19 at the fourth time of trying in 2001.

The 53-year-old made it to three Wimbledon finals in the 1990s, with his first defeat coming in 1992 after being bested by Andre Agassi. Despite eliminating several tennis icons on his way to the final, including Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg and Sampras, Agassi won the five-set thriller.

It was 1994 when he appeared in his second final at the All England Club, this time coming against Sampras. The American, who dominated the sport throughout the decade, won by straight sets and defeated the Croatian the following year in the semi-finals of the summer major before triumphing over Boris Becker to claim a third straight Wimbledon title.

Still awaiting his first Grand Slam of his career, Ivanisevic once again played his way into the Wimbledon final, but it was Sampras standing in his way again. 'Pistol Pete' came out on top in five sets to equal Bjorn Borg's Open Era record of winning five Wimbledon titles.

While Ivanisevic ended up finally enjoying the ultimate success at the event in 2001 when he became the only male entrant to win a Grand Slam singles title as a wild card, he's since admitted that his losses to Sampras psychologically damaged him.

When asked in an interview if a player had ever ruined his career, he swiftly answered to Sportal: "[Pete] Sampras. That man destroyed a lot of my life, dreams, sleep, nerves. I can't forgive him for that." Following Ivanisevic's retirement in 2004, he ventured into coaching, where he led Marin Cilic to the US Open title in 2014.

He began coaching Djokovic in 2019, and their almost five-year partnership resulted in a mammoth 12 Grand Slam titles. The pair went their separate ways in 2019, with the Serb announcing the decision on social media, as Ivanisevic detailed just how demanding his former client could be.

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"Well, when you train Novak Djokovic, anything other than winning the title at any tournament is a failure. That's a lot of pressure to deal with," the 53-year-old told Blick. "Novak is very demanding. Something new has to happen every day, he always wants to get better. If you can't handle it, it's better not to take the job at all. The language certainly helped me - we had no barrier between us."

More recently, he coached Stefanos Tsitsipas, but the pair split on acrimonious terms after the Croatian laid into his player following his Wimbledon exit.