Goran Ivanisevic has claimed Novak Djokovic\u2019s stance on Covid vaccines has been justified, as he suggested the 24-time Grand Slam champion was ready to quit tennis to stand by his principles.<\/p>\n
In an interview with former Croatian footballer Slaven Bilic on his \u201cFailure of the Champion\u201d show, former Wimbledon champion Ivanisevic opened up on his career in tennis and in particular his highly successful period coaching Djokovic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ivanisevic and Djokovic parted ways on amicable terms in March of last year after the pair lived through some huge high points and some notable setbacks.<\/p>\n The biggest challenge during that period for Djokovic came as he was deported from Australia for refusing to take a Covid vaccine and he also missed some big tournaments in the years following that high-profile exit from Melbourne in January 2022.<\/p>\n Ivanisevic now believes Djokovic may have been right in his stance, as he suggested the people of the world \u2018behaved like sheep\u2019 as they agreed to take the Covid vaccines.<\/p>\n \u201cNovak refused the vaccine, ready to abandon his career, a decision no other elite athlete would do,\u201d said Ivanisevic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe world condemned him, criticized him relentlessly, even belittled him for standing firm. Yet he never wavered, standing firm in his conviction with a determination that still resonates.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we are talking about those vaccines and they say that some of them caused problems. We were locked up like sheep for three years and we were manipulated.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was during the pandemic when he refused to get vaccinated. He said publicly several times that it was a decision he was making for his body, that he knew his body best and that he didn\u2019t want to do that. And he was ready to end his career for this reason. He went all the way just to not get vaccinated<\/p>\n \u201cHe never told anyone not to get vaccinated, he never told us not to get vaccinated. We all got vaccinated. He never did that in his life. He organized a tournament in Belgrade, he facilitated the vaccination of other players, but he did not get vaccinated and, for this reason, he was criticized.\u201d<\/p>\n Ivanisevic also gave his verdict on the GOAT debate in tennis, as he insisted Djokovic has to be considered as being a few steps ahead of his great rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the battle to be named as the best player in the history of the men\u2019s game.<\/p>\n \u2018I expected more from Zverev, Alcaraz and even Djokovic in Sinner\u2019s absence\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic reveals how he still gets joy from tennis in compelling interview<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThose are the three perhaps the greatest players in the world,\u201d said Ivanisevic.<\/p>\n \u201cFederer plays the most beautiful tennis, even when he plays badly, you enjoy watching. Then you have Rafa who is a fighter, to the point of exhaustion, he is such a fighter, he will leave his life on the court. He won 14 titles at Roland Garros, that will never happen in the history of any sport. Djokovic is the most complete of all three and the best ever.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen someone tells me that it doesn\u2019t matter where you\u2019re from, how does it matter? Everything matters . If Luka Modri\u0107 was English, he would be the most expensive in the history of football.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not the same, this one is Swiss, this one is Spanish, then a guy from Serbia comes and they don\u2019t understand anything, where he came from. He goes and says what he thinks, he\u2019s the only one, he says what others think and what they shouldn\u2019t say. Novak tells the truth, it hurts people, not everyone will hear it. I know what others think, they twist it a bit, and he is like that.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are Balkans, so they put us all in the same category, you are this or that. He showed them on the field and they can\u2019t take that away from him. He is the best. You don\u2019t have to love him, you have to respect him and acknowledge him. At the end of the day, they will have to acknowledge him, because he is the greatest. If he was one of those two, yes, they would have already acknowledged them.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic\u2019s updated 2025 tournament schedule after Madrid Open announcement<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Novak Djokovic was \u2018ready to abandon his career\u2019 reveals former coach Goran Ivanisevic<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Goran Ivanisevic has claimed Novak Djokovic\u2019s stance on Covid vaccines has been justified, as he suggested the 24-time Grand Slam champion was ready to quit tennis to stand by his principles. In an interview with former Croatian footballer Slaven Bilic on his \u201cFailure of the Champion\u201d show, former Wimbledon champion Ivanisevic opened up on his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h3>\n