Roger Federer’s former coach Ivan Ljubicic talks exclusively about his most emotional moment: “It made me particularly proud”

Ljubicic joined the 20-time Grand Slam tournament winner’s team in January 2016. “Roger invited me and my wife to dinner,” says the 45-year-old about the beginnings of the collaboration.

“He asked me if I was interested in working with him. I was super surprised because I didn’t know Stefan Edberg was going to quit. I said, ‘Yes, definitely.'”

Federer then wanted to know whether he saw him capable of winning further Grand Slams. At that point, the Swiss had not achieved this for five years, having triumphed against Andy Murray at Wimbledon in 2012.

He “also told Federer that I wasn’t signing for a single Grand Slam, I said that I wanted several,” said Ivanisevic.

After a difficult first year of collaboration, the title dream came true at the beginning of 2017. In a thrilling final in Melbourne, Federer won the Australian Open title against Nadal.

“This game against Nadal made me particularly proud and happy – especially since he was 1:3 behind in the fifth set,” emphasizes Ljubicic in an interview Eurosport.

“Coming back and turning the match around was something very special for me. It was the most emotional moment as a coach, but almost as emotional for Roger as a player. We all know that Novak went on to win more Grand Slams than the others , but this tournament was very important.”

From this experience, Ljubicic took away many of the things that make a great champion: “The details, the perfect execution in everything he did,” enthuses the 2010 Indian Wells winner. “Preparing interviews, warm-up exercises, dinner… .Everything he did, he did with great effort. Many days I didn’t know what to say because he was just perfect.”

Nevertheless, even Federer’s great career did not go completely well. Because over the years, Federer has repeatedly suffered from injuries and physical problems.

So the decision was ultimately made to end my career in 2022. Not an easy one, as Ljubicic makes clear: “We also had mentally difficult times because everyone thinks that everything is easy for Roger, but we had complicated times.”

However, the good times are likely to far outweigh the negatives.