Ljubicic should have been Federer's coach during 2014-16

[Krish0608]

Federer had so many opportunities to win slams in this period (3 Final, 1 SF). He lost them all to Djokovic. He was in great shape and easily the second best player in the world during this phase. I believe he would have won at least a Wimbledon had he not been coached by Edberg but by Ljubicic. Federer lacked a solid baseline game during that phase compared to his later 2017-19 Ljubicic phase. He tried to make up for that by serving huge and rushing to the net often (along with effective gimmicks like SABR). He was better than the field but Djokovic exposed his shortcomings thoroughly. Neo Federer (esp 2017) would have done much better in that phase and would have won more slam(s). Discuss.

 

[ChrisRF]

I fully agree. Ljubicic was a main factor in bringing Federer back to being himself. Edberg was somewhat stuck in the 90s and thought that Federer needs to play an ancient netrushing style because he is too old to have success with his normal game. But that style is inferior in modern tennis, and Ljubicic brought him back to an all-court-game which was of course still very attacking but with a thoughful point construction.

Of course Annacone before was even worse than Edberg in that regard, but still Ljubicic was a massive upgrade.

 

[HetTheGreaterer]

I fully agree. Ljubicic was a main factor in bringing Federer back to being himself. Edberg was somewhat stuck in the 90s and thought that Federer needs to play an ancient netrushing style because he is too old to have success with his normal game. But that style is inferior in modern tennis, and Ljubicic brought him back to an all-court-game which was of course still very attacking but with a thoughful point construction.

Of course Annacone before was even worse than Edberg in that regard, but still Ljubicic was a massive upgrade.

If anything, he needed confidence and clutch on big points, which apparently came in 2017 ao, gone by 2017 wtf; never to come back

 

[ForehandRF]

Fed should have hired Tony Roche again

 

[BeatlesFan]

OP forgets that Fed was transitioning from his smaller racket to a new racket in 2014. Fed acknowledged it was a big change for him which required 6-7 months before he felt comfortable with the racket. Yet he made 2 slam finals in 2014, losing to an ATG in both finals. That's a big reason for his up and down play in 2014.