Roger Federer’s former coach has opened up on their working relationship.
Ivan Ljubicic revealed the 20-time Grand Slam champion invited him to dinner before he joined his team in the 2016 season.
The Croatian player-turned-coach worked with Federer until his eventual retirement in 2022. And he believes everyone’s perception of the Swiss star is wrong.
Ljubicic played a big role in hoping Federer rediscover his best form. He joined the team in 2016 but they faced a massive setback when he got injured and ended his season after Wimbledon.
The Swiss star revived his career when he returned in 2017. He won two Grand Slam titles after a five-year drought and lifted five other trophies. By early 2018, he’d returned to No. 1 in the world and won his 20th Major.
His decision to add Ljubicic to his camp paid off. And Federer’s old coach has now recalled the moment he was first asked to take the job as the Swiss star prepared to end his work with Stefan Edberg.
“I was working in London with Italian television for the Masters, and he invited me, his wife and my wife to dinner,” the retired former world No. 3 told Eurosport.
“He asked me if I’d be interested in working with him. I was really surprised because I didn’t know Stefan Edberg was going to stop. I said ‘Yes, absolutely.’”
At this point, Federer hadn’t won a Grand Slam title since Wimbledon 2012 and was questioning whether he had more left in him. Ljubicic believed in his former rival and backed him to win multiple.
He continued: “After that, we continued to talk about goals. He asked me if I thought he could still win Grand Slams because he hadn’t won one for four years. I said ‘absolutely’.
“I also said I wasn’t signing up for just one Grand Slam, I said I’d like to win several.”
The Croat was right, Federer won three more Major titles before he ended his career and was the first man to reach 20 Slams before being overtaken by Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Federer spent his career being praised for his elegant and effortless game style. While Ljubicic said his old charge did things “perfectly”, he admitted the perception was wrong – they went through plenty of tough times.
The 45-year-old explained: “The details, the excellence of everything he did, preparing for interviews, his warm-ups, the dinners. All the things he did, he did with great application.
“There were many days when I didn’t know what to say because he was perfect. We’ve also had some difficult times mentally, because everyone thinks that everything is easy for Roger, but we’ve had some complicated times.”
Since Federer’s retirement, Ljubicic has been working for Sky Italia and took on a role with the French Tennis Federation. He was spotted watching several French players at the recent Paris Masters.
