The Davis Cup is just around the corner and with it the buzz about the official retirement of Rafa Nadal increases, a moment in the history of tennis about which numerous sports stars have already given their opinion. The last one has been Ivan LjubicicCroatian tennis player and former coach of Roger Federer who perfectly understands, as he recently declared, the Spaniard’s reasons for hanging up his racket.
Ljubicic, now responsible for development of French tennis, gave his point of view in a talk with Eurosport: “I was surprised by the moment when Nadal announced his retirement. Of course I can understand why, that is not the question, but for me, Rafael Nadal is Roland Garros, and seeing that he is not going to play the next Roland Garros is difficult to understand,” he clarified before describing the situation that the Balearic Islands are now experiencing.
“Champions like him play to win, not to participate. I don’t know exactly what his level of play and his current physical condition are, but it is not what we were used to and that allowed him to be competitive at a very high level,” Ljubicic reflected.
“Of course, I’m happy to see him finish in the Davis Cup, at home”he pointed out, and then remembered what it was like to play against Nadal and Federer at the time they met on the court.
“Playing against Rafa at the Philippe Chatrier is difficult. It is a traumatic experience. I never faced Federer at Wimbledon, but we saw each other many times and it was complicated because he had all kinds of solutions. Nadal’s tennis is quite simple at the level tactical, but it is impossible to control, especially for its topspin effect in particular. Different tactical solutions emerged from Roger in each game, it was very difficult to play against him,” he settled between memories.