Farewell, Stefan; Hello, Ivan: Here's what Ljubicic's role as Federer's coach could mean for the Swiss

At a time when most athletes would be discussing a post career transition with their team, Roger Federer is busy making a change to the team that supports his unending quest for brilliance. The 34 year old genius is dealing with the exit of Stefan Edberg, an idol and mentor, who the Swiss enjoyed working with over a two year period. The Swede could no longer afford to spare the time needed to tutor Federer, paving the way for Ivan Ljubicic to join the team. At 34, Federer is in an intriguing phase of his career. The ageing Swiss is defiant, remaining steadily inside the top ten of the sport since 2002. His association with Edberg and a switch to a larger racquet head enabled Federer to arrest a seemingly terminal decline in 2014. The Swiss star rose from eighth in the rankings in March 2014 to end the current season back in third place behind a peerless Novak Djokovic and the battling Andy Murray. During his time with Edberg, the Swiss has shown a propensity to reinvent himself as a player. [caption id=“attachment_2541070” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Roger Federer in a file photo with Ivan Ljubicic. AFP[/caption] He has also wasted no opportunity to remind us of his desire to continue playing for “many years to come,” despite the collective disbelief of astounded naysayers. The enhanced racquet head is certainly helping Federer keep the sting in his serve, despite advancing years. And in introducing a new dynamic to his game, by attacking the second serve and volleying more often, Federer has even gone a step further to innovate his game. The sneak attack by Roger (SABR) has created waves and ruffled a few feathers (Boris Becker’s for instance). Edberg has to be credited with pushing Federer to use the volley more often. If you were to watch the 2001 video of the match between Pete Sampras and Federer, you would be hard pressed to recognize the current day version of that 19 year old man who hovered at the net with unfailing consistency. The game has evolved since then into a brutally physical expression of power off the baseline and Federer adapted rather well to the demands of post millennial tennis. That brings us to Ljubicic, a good friend of Federer besides being a baseline hugging player. Both of these are important aspects – with Federer traveling the world with his wife and four children, it takes a strong personal connect to fit into the scheme of things. Ljubicic’s strong personal relationship with Federer will help him integrate quickly. Technically, it is interesting that Ljubicic also plays a one handed backhand as does Federer. This should help the Croat understand the shot-making dynamics of the Swiss with an inside perspective. While Federer’s backhand has gotten better with the new racquet, he could always use some insight on using it as a tool against Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Severin Luthi forms the core of Federer’s strong team, having traveled with him since 2008. Daniel Troxler, his physiotherapist and Pierre Paganini, the fitness trainer will continue to remain on-board. Ljubicic will need to build lines of communication with the team in order to ensure his success. Some of those men have spent many years with Federer and understand best how things work with the Swiss. The fact that Ljubicic retired only three years ago and is more in touch with the modern era also counts in his favour. Having played Federer’s arch rivals on several occasions, Ljubicic should be able to offer an independent insight for Federer to execute in order to tame his opponents. While Djokovic appears to be the primary rival for Federer at this time, Nadal has improved significantly in the past two months, suggesting a return to top form for 2016. Federer could see him across the net far more often next year than he has in the past two seasons. Ljubicic has seen Nadal from close quarters – he defeated Nadal in 2010 at Indian Wells, five years after he stretched the Spaniard to five sets in Madrid, when the tournament there was played on hard courts. Federer has reached three grand slam finals in the past two years at Wimbledon and the US Open, so clearly the brief for Ljubicic would be help the Swiss earn an 18th grand slam title. Whether he has the intellectual nous to assist Federer achieve that goal, only time can tell.