Swiss maestro Roger Federer retired as a legend from the tennis world. Federer has seen his ups and downs in his own way before calling it off. Apart from facing injuries, there was a point when he had trouble putting together a few victories on the tennis court. The former world number one’s coach opened up about the time when the 20-time Grand Slam champion won after a long break. 

The 41-year-old tennis ace has given his best 24 years to tennis, winning hundreds of accolades during his journey. Almost every year of his professional career, he has either won a Grand Slam or advanced to the final match. Federer lost his path to winning a Slam for four years straight after his 2012 success, before taking on the 2017 Australian Open.

 Ivan Ljubicic discusses the 2017 Australian Open victory

In a recent interview with Tennis Majors, Ivan Ljubicic, Roger Federer’s coach, who has been a part of his winning journey, opened up about the time when the former world number one faced Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the 2017 Australian Open final in Melbourne. The Croatian tennis player talked about Federer’s mindset and focus that helped on his path to victory. 

He said, “He accepted the fact that he needs to play more through Nadal’s forehand. He flattened out his backhand and he stayed focused on the ball, not on the opponent. At that time, his head-to-head with Rafa was very negative, there were scars there, so these things meant a lot.”

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Back in that time, the 20-time Grand Slam champion was not doing well and was losing matches against Rafael Nadal, his arch-nemesis on the court and close friend off it. He also talked about how clear Federer was in terms of focusing on his own game rather than the opponent.

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Further, he also said that he was convinced that Federer will win the match but as his coach, he worried in the fourth set, when the chances of the Spaniard started getting up. However, the Swiss legend took over the match in the fifth set and won a Grand Slam title after four years of waiting. Ljubicic also talked about the winning moment. He said, “It was a very emotional victory, because he had not won a Slam for four and a half years before that.” 

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s rivalry 

There have been 40 match-ups between the two tennis greats: twenty were played on the hard court, sixteen on clay, and four on grass. The Spaniard had an advantage of 10-4 in the Grand Slam victories. Their rivalry was arguably at its peak between 2006 to 2009. 

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There was a time when these two tennis stars were ranked world number one and two, respectively. However, years passed and their rivalry has since turned into one of the best friendships in the sport.