Novak Djokovic discloses how Goran Ivanisevic and him came up with unique slangs to swear in between matches to avoid punishment from the umpires

Ivanisevic has been coaching the Serb for nearly four years now.

Novak Djokovic discloses how Goran Ivanisevic and him came up with unique slangs to swear in between matches to avoid punishment from the umpires

Goran Ivanisevic and Novak Djokovic (Image via Eurosport)

World No.1 Novak Djokovic has revealed that he had unique slangs with coach Goran Ivanisevic to avoid reprimands from umpires. Ivanisevic has been coaching the Serb for nearly four years now. Djokovic revealed that they had to come up with slangs to swear to avoid violations.

Like with all sports, tennis is a high-pressure game. This leads to players swearing mid-game to release some steam during high-pressure matches. However, swearing in the game is a violation and leads to reprimands from the chair umpires. Therefore, Djokovic, with his coach, has come up with unique ways to swear and not get caught in the act.

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In an interview with Eurosport, Djokovic revealed the nature of his relationship with his coach.

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We have a lot of fun. We are great friends. We have a professional relationship.

However, he admitted that with the success of Serbian and Croatian players over the last few years, there came a slight problem. 

The problem we have, because of the success of Croatian and Serbian players in the last 30 years or so, we unfortunately have a situation where most of the umpires understand the swearing word.

The duo had figured out a way to overcome this. The 24-time Grand Slam champion revealed that he had to create new words and slangs to trick the umpires. However, in really high-pressure situations, this is simply not possible according to the 36-year-old. 

So we have to play around a bit, we have to use the slang, create new words, but when you're p*ss*d off you don't think about creating.

Novak Djokovic’s journey with Goran Ivanisevic

The Serb had partnered with former World No. 2 Goran Ivanisevic in 2019. However, this was not the first coaching stint for the Croatian. His other prominent partnership was with compatriot Marin Cilic, whom he led to a Grand Slam title at the US Open in 2014.

Goran Ivanisevic and Novak Djokovic
Goran Ivanisevic and Novak Djokovic (Image via Tennis365)

While the Croatian had a rather successful career as a player himself, he saw even more success as a coach to Novak Djokovic. He helped the World No. 1 win nine out of his 24 Grand Slam titles. Ivanisevic has led the 36-year-old to win five Masters 1000 titles as well.

However, regardless of their extreme professional success, Djokovic has also admitted that the coaching team is having less success with motivating him these days. Nevertheless, their partnership seems to be working, for Djokovic is still playing at his absolute best, despite being a good ten years older than the next generation of players.

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