The Croatian Ivan Ljubicic is the man who accompanied Roger Federer from the bench in the final part of his career. Before, he was a tennis player and knew what it was like to face what was later his pupil (13/3 in the face-to-face in favor of Roger), also Novak Djokovic (7/2 for the Serbian) and Rafa Nadal (7/2 in favor of the Spaniard, including the incredible comeback in the final of the Masters 1,000 in Madrid 2005, when it was played on hard courts and indoors at the Casa de Campo [3-6, 2-6, 6-3 6-4, 7-6 7/3].
He knows the “Big 3” from the inside and from the outside and in an interview with “SportKlub” he answered the big question of recent years, which has now taken a new reformulation after Novak Djokovic won Roland Garros and stayed alone with the record of 23 Grand Slams. “Novak is already the most successful player (see all his records here), but ‘being the greatest’ is something subjective that carries an element of preference. Everyone has their GOAT (Greatest Of All Time, best player of all times) and that causes debate. If we look at other sports: is there an indisputable GOAT in football? In basketball, everyone agrees that it is Michael Jordan, but he is not the one with the most titles. For a third of the “The world is Federer, for another it is Nadal and for another it is Djokovic. If Novak wins several more Grand Slams, something that seems quite likely, the debate will be useless. If he finishes with five or ten more than the rest, we will not have this conversation”, says Ljubicic.
Alcaraz, a mixture of the three
In addition, the Balkan tennis player was asked about the irruption of Carlos Alcaraz on the circuit. “He has brought a new dimension to tennis that young players have been missing in the last 10 to 20 years. It’s very positive and that’s something we haven’t seen in a long time: it’s kind of a brutal combination between Djokovic, Federer and Nadal. I hope his body can hold up, because he is demanding a lot from him right now,” said Ljubicic, warning about the injuries the Murcian has suffered in his still short career.
2023-06-27 18:26:28
#nuance #Federers #coach #puts #debate #history #Swiss #Djokovic #Nadal
