Roger Federer enjoyed one of the great comebacks in tennis history when he roared back to Grand Slam-winning form at the start of 2017 and one man was credited for helping to aid his revival.
Federer’s winning run appeared to be coming to an end as injuries and the rise of Novak Djokovic halted his run of success at the top of the men’s game and when he called time on his 2016 season due to injuries, the sands of time appeared to be catching up with him.
He spent his time off at the end of that year to rebuild and come back with a power-packed backhand that proved to be pivotal to his success in an epic five-set final against Rafael Nadal in Melbourne.
Federer started working with former top 10 player and his long-time friend Ivan Ljubicic prior to his comeback and in an appearance on the Off Court with Greg Rusedski podcast, the Croatian reflected on the decisions made ahead of the 2017 season.
He was quick to downplay his impact on Federer’s game, as he reflected on the big impact the new backhand had in the match-up against Nadal.
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“I heard and I read a lot of stories of how Ivan changed this and that,” he said on the Off Court with Greg Podcast.
“It’s very difficult to remember, honestly, when you are a coach you work on everything at the same time and you say so many things you don’t know what is going to stick.
“One thing is true is that we all knew that against Rafa you cannot slice, so for me it was very obvious that he has to hit those backhands if he wants to have any chance to beat him.
“My point was that I wanted him to hit a flat backhand, not flick it or a top spin one or a high one, but go through the ball.
“We worked on it from September 2016 for five months on the return, but you know how it is, you work on something and it sticks on the other things. So we did work on it [the backhand] but it did work on other things.
“Now it’s very famous that Ljubicic changed his backhand, and because I had a one-handed backhand, I can only coach one-handed players.
“But the thing is we did work on it, but against Rafa he knew that he could not slice, so then the perfect storm came and he started really feeling confident with the backhand and 2017 was a great year for his career and as a team. Everything was like a dream.”
Federer went on to collect two more Grand Slam titles to take his total to 20, with that punchy backhand part of the reason why he got a little more out of his remarkable career.
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