The ATP Tennis Radio Podcast · ATP Media

EXCLUSIVE - Ivan Ljubicic On His Role With The French Tennis Federation

·17 min·1 clip

Ivan Ljubicic argues that the tennis serve has lost its value dramatically over the past 20 years.

Former top-ten player and Roger Federer's coach Ivan Ljubicic discusses his new role as High Performance Director for the French Tennis Federation. Host Matt Cronin interviews Ljubicic about the evolution of tennis and the challenges of developing champions. Ljubicic analyzes the sport's technical and stylistic shifts from his playing era to today. He argues the serve has "deteriorated" because young players no longer idolize big servers like Sampras or Ivanisevic, instead modeling games on Djokovic and Nadal. Ljubicic claims the number of aces has dropped dramatically and few in the top 30, besides Hubert Hurkacz, possess a truly dominant serve. He believes stylistic contrast, exemplified by Carlos Alcaraz or Nick Kyrgios, is crucial for an interesting match, warning against academies producing uniform players. Ljubicic suggests tennis could learn from chess and cricket by introducing faster playing formats while preserving classic best-of-five Grand Slam matches. He predicts Grand Slams will look the same in 20 years but the ATP Tour may need more creative events to attract young fans. Ljubicic states physical gains are now marginal and tennis remains a technical and mental sport, with the one-handed backhand being a "beautiful shot" he hopes survives. He dismisses the idea of players using multiple backhand types, saying the modern game is too fast for such complexity. Regarding France's talent development, he identifies a breakdown in coaching players aged 15 to 19 and advocates for modernizing methods by incorporating data analysis. Ljubicic contrasts France's situation with Italy's "golden era," attributing Italy's success to hosting many international tournaments and launching SuperTennis, a 24/7 TV channel promoting the sport domestically. He believes constant television exposure gets more children to choose tennis over other sports. The conversation is analytical and forward-looking, blending technical observations with administrative insights. Ljubicic speaks from a unique perspective as a former elite player, a legendary coach, and now a federation executive. Tennis enthusiasts interested in the sport's technical evolution and development pathways will find this episode compelling. Listeners seeking match analysis or current tournament news may find the administrative focus less engaging.

As heard by us

A calm look at how the serve, match formats, and tennis's future have changed.

Ivan Ljubicic makes a plain case that tennis has lost some of the serve's old bite. He ties that change to the big servers he grew up with, then points to Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer as the era that pushed the game toward all-court completeness instead of one-shot power.

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Why you'd press play

Hear Ivan Ljubicic explain why the serve has deteriorated and stopped being taken for granted.

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