Roger Federer’s coach makes ‘definite’ retirement pledge after goodbye

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Roger Federer’s long-time coach Ivan Ljubicic has promised fans that the Swiss tennis icon will “definitely” be involved in tennis still following his retirement this week. Federer officially waved goodbye on Friday night in his last ever match before retirement, playing doubles alongside Rafael Nadal.

It wasn’t to be the fairytale ending as the Team Europe pair lost, but the result paled in significance to the occasion as Federer soon took centre stage with tears flowing all around The O2. The realisation soon settled in for many that it was going to be the last time Federer would play professionally on a court ever again.

Both Nadal and Novak Djokovic struggled to hold back tears and Federer’s family were also understandably emotional when they came out on court. Since then, Federer has been a regular feature on the Team Europe bench and fans inside The O2 have regularly shouted out chants calling for him to reconsider.

Djokovic even joked after his doubles win with Matteo Berrettini on Saturday night that “there is always a hope that Roger will come back”. That looks extremely unlikely given Federer’s recent comments and Ljubicic has also indicated that a retirement U-turn is out of the question.

But Federer’s long-time coach insists the 20-time Grand Slam champion will remain involved in tennis in some capacity. When asked whether he had recovered from the emotions of Friday night, Ljubicic told Eurosport: “Not yet. It’s going to take some time.

“We obviously knew a little bit more in advance so we could have prepared for it but it’s hard. I knew Roger would struggle emotionally, I think everybody expected that but for me personally the trigger was to see others. Rafa, Novak, Andy and the whole team was really emotional. Then you see Team World and everywhere you look, everybody is in tears.

“It’s really difficult to go through that moment but in the end, we decided that it is a celebration. It’s not a funeral, nobody died [smiles] so it’s all good. We have to move on and celebrate what Roger is, what he brought to our sport and he will keep bringing in the future.

“As he said, he’s not going anywhere. He’s just not going to play professional competitive matches, but he’s definitely going to be close to our sport because he loves it too much not to be connected to it.

“I think this week, this moment is for the fans. For everybody here in London and watching from homes. We who are lucky enough to be close to him, we’re going to have more of those private moments.

“We tried to be ready for it, not to make too big of a deal of it because he is still around. We’re still going to spend time together. It wasn’t easy but it was tough to get up in the morning.”

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