Roger Federer’s former coach Ivan Ljubicic reveals he reached out to Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray after the news of their collaboration broke out and added that he thinks the plan is to have the Briton accompanying the Serb in Grand Slams and occasionally in other big tournaments.
On November 23rd, the record 24-time Major winner dropped an absolute bombshell after revealing that he would be joined by the freshly retired British tennis legend at the Australian Open.
For many years, those two were competing against each other on the biggest stage and had one of the best rivalries on the 21st century. Now just four months after his retirement from pro tennis, Murray is joining Djokovic’s team and will try to help the 37-year-old add more success to his name.
On paper, there are several reasons why this is one of the most interesting and entertaining partnerships in tennis in recent history.
Ljubicic, a former world No. 3 who retired in 2012, started working with Federer four years later when he was just 37. Their collaboration was a success as the Swiss ended his five-year Slam drought at the 2017 Australian Open and won two more Majors to finish with 20 before retiring in 2022.
Now, the Croatian tennis legend is rooting for Murray and Djokovic to also see their partnership result in some big triumphs.
“It’s fantastic for the sport. I wrote a message to both of them to tell them how excited I was and that I understood their decision. I hope the outcome will be positive. Murray staying active in the sport, I love that. I imagine that Andy, who can’t travel for thirty weeks, will be there for the Grand Slams and a few important tournaments. I’m excited to see how that works out. We know how they are! Who’s going to say what to the other? It’s very interesting!” Ljubicic told L’Equipe.
Ivan Ljubicic© Ivan Ljubicic/Instagram – Fair Use
Djokovic wanted something different and he got it
After adding Goran Ivanisevic to his coaching staff in 2018, the Serb went on to add 12 more Grand Slams to his collection and achieve his goal of setting a new record for the most titles in that department. But after an extremely successful 2023 season, the current world No. 7 didn’t make a good start to 2024 and it was evident that something was just off.
Around March, rumors started to swirl around that Djokovic was close to splitting with Ivanisevic. In April, that indeed happened. In the rest of the year, the former world No. 1 worked briefly with Nenad Zimonjic and some other coaches associated with the Serbian Tennis Federation.
When the offseason came and he started making a list of potential coaches for 2025, the Serb thought it would be great if he could find someone who was in his position and could understand him perfectly. That’s when he realized that Murray was the guy he was searching for.
Even though the Briton was left stunned by the offer, he couldn’t say no to his old rival.
“I was going through a process of thinking about next season in the past couple of months and figuring out what I needed as I stopped with my coach Goran Ivanisevic, who I was successful with. I took about six months to think if I really needed a coach and if yes, who is that going to be and the profile of the coach,” Djokovic told Sky Sports.
“We were going through different names and I realized at this point the perfect coach would be someone who has been through the experiences I have been through. A multiple Grand Slam winner and I was thinking about a few and the Andy Murray discussion appeared on the table with my team. I decided I would give him a call and see how it goes. It caught him off guard a little bit as he wasn’t expecting it.
“We connected really fast and he accepted it after a few days. I can’t be more excited about it. This collaboration is a surprise to me as well, to everyone, but it is exciting for tennis. He has been one of my greatest rivals, we are at the same age. We played in all the biggest stages in our sport so I can’t wait to be out there next season.”
According to some reports, the former two-time Wimbledon winner had multiple offers from top players since retiring but he declined them all before the Serb reached out.
If Djokovic ends up winning his 11th Australian Open title in January, there is absolutely no doubt that we would be seeing more of Murray in box in the rest of 2025.
Tennis World USA