In an interview with Eurosport, Ljubicic shared the harsh reality of playing against Nadal on clay: “Playing against Rafa in the Philippe-Chatrier is difficult. It’s a traumatic experience,” he said.
“Nadal is Roland Garros”
Federer reached five Roland Garros finals, but only won one title in 2009, defeating Robin Soderling, who had defeated Nadal in the fourth round. In those five finals, Federer only won three sets to Nadal’s twelve, including the painful 2008 loss, which remains one of the most one-sided matches of their rivalry.
That year, Nadal won his fourth consecutive Roland Garros with a decisive victory over Federer 6-1, 6-3, 6-0. Just a few months later, Nadal rose to world number 1 for the first time in his career.
“I was surprised when Nadal announced his retirement,” Ljubicic said. “Obviously I can understand why, but that’s not the important thing. But for me, Rafa Nadal is Roland Garros, and it’s difficult to accept that I’m not going to play it.”
“Champions like that play to win, not just to participate. And that’s something we’ve come to understand when we’ve seen the man with 21 Grand Slam titles (actually 22) fighting in recent months. I don’t know exactly what his level of play or his physical condition, but it is not what we are used to, and it does not allow him to compete at a very high level.
Roger Federer reaches 5 Roland Garros finals
Ljubicic also highlighted Federer’s dominance on grass, comparing it to Nadal’s supremacy on clay. Federer finished his career with a tournament-record eight Wimbledon titles.
“I have never played against Federer at Wimbledon, but I have done it many times, and it was complicated because he had all the solutions,” Ljubicic continued. “Rafa’s tennis is tactically quite simple, but it is impossible to manage, especially with his topspin. But Roger always had different solutions, and for me, tactically, it was very complicated.”
