Roger Federer's best memory - 2016 edition: Ivan Ljubicic joins coaching team

Roger Federer's career is studded with great successes and incredible records: with 20 Slams he is the record holder but the Swiss Maestro has achieved other great goals, such as eight triumphs at Wimbledon, the weeks as world no. 1, and the titles on the grass and hard courts. For each season, however, there is a particular goal, an achievement that should be highlighted.

2016 was a very tough season for the Swiss Maestro, conditioned by a knee injury and painful defeats: yet he made two very important choices, which were decisive for 2017 and 2018. For the first time since 2001, he did not win a single ATP title, playing and losing only one final, in Brisbane, in 2016, against Milos Raonic. That season was the worst of the Swiss's glorious career. And yet there were two extremely important moments, perhaps at the basis of his successes in future years.

The first was the change of super-coach. In late 2015 he ended his partnership with Stefan Edberg, after two very good seasons in which 11 titles. Since 2016 his new super-coach was Ivan Ljubicic. A choice that gave incredible results as early as 2017.

The second important moment was linked to his knee injury, which penalized his 2016. After Wimbledon he decided to skip the rest of the season, preparing himself optimally for the following year in which he wanted to be in tandem, physically and mentally. 

“With Milos and Roger, I never thought about a short or long term impact. I thought: how can I improve a player, how can I improve this, what should I do? The truth is, if you don't have a quick impact, there can't be long-haul projects. And that's the tricky part. Because it also takes a lot of luck, because you need to immediately get results to gain the player's trust. No matter how confident the player is in confidence and confidence with the coach if after a while I don't get results, a lot of problems still arise," said Ljubicic in 2018.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3aVekSR