Former world No 3 Ivan Ljubicic has revealed which of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic was the \u201cmost difficult\u201d opponent for him as he addressed the GOAT debate.<\/p>\n
During an illustrious career spanning from 1998 to 2012, Ljubicic regularly crossed paths with Federer<\/a>, Nadal<\/a> and Djokovic<\/a>, who are known as the Big Three.<\/p>\n The Croatian played Federer on 13 occasions, while he faced Nadal and Djokovic nine times each, and he earned multiple wins against each of the legendary trio.<\/p>\n Ljubicic coached Federer from 2016 until his retirement in 2022, helping the Swiss icon win the last three of his 20 Grand Slam titles.<\/p>\n Speaking to the Off Court With Greg Rusedski<\/a> podcast, Ljubicic broke down his experiences of playing each of the Big Three when asked who reached the highest level at their peak.<\/p>\n \u201cI think for everybody, it\u2019s different. Because they were so different, each one of the opponents had our preference,\u201d Ljubicic began.<\/p>\n Ljubicic on Nadal:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI felt against Rafa, you have time. He stays far back on the return, so he kind of lets you do your thing, especially on my service games. So I felt rather comfortable.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, I lost a lot more times than I won, but I did beat him twice. I always felt like if I played well, I\u2019m going to have a shot, I\u2019m going to have my chances. And also he doesn\u2019t serve big, so you\u2019re always in the rallies. And of course it\u2019s really difficult, but I never felt like it\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner comparisons with the \u2018Big 3\u2019 given fresh perspective by former world No 3<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Jack Draper hails \u2018proper inspiration\u2019 Novak Djokovic as he issues GOAT verdict<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n Ljubicic on Federer:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAgainst Roger, was complicated, because he would always do something different. I remember I played him like four times in three months in the beginning of 2005. It was always a different match. I thought after losing to him, \u2018Okay, now I know what I need to do\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember, Rotterdam was a big battle, 7-6 in the third for him, I had my chances. Dubai, he was serving [and] volleying more than not. And then [Indian Wells], he was going back and looping sometimes.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it was always different match. So you had to adapt to him and he was always better in what he was doing than you. So in that sense, it was really, really difficult for me to play against him.\u201d<\/p>\n Ljubicic on Djokovic:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cNovak, last time I played him was, I believe, 2010. When Novak was on, it was maybe the most difficult for me, because me having a big serve and relying [on] a lot of free points with my serve\u2026 I mean with him, it was just not possible.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was not just that I was not getting free points, but it was coming faster at me than my serve. So it was just\u2026 you would feel like you get strangled, because he doesn\u2019t hit winners, but he pushed you left, right, left, right, you\u2019re always on the run.<\/p>\n \u201cYou never have a clean shot. You don\u2019t even find yourself in the situation where you can take a risk. So that was really suffocating.\u201d<\/p>\n Ljubicic also weighed in on the debate over which of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic is the greatest player of all time.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are different. It\u2019s really difficult to say who is better,\u201d said the 10-time ATP Tour titlist.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously Novak won the most, it\u2019s clear. But for me, the impact that Roger had on the game, and Rafa, in different moments \u2014 it\u2019s huge. Maybe bigger than Novak.<\/p>\n \u201cBut\u2026 what is the GOAT? If we go by the results, obviously Novak is the one who won the most. But the impact on the game I feel like Roger definitely had, at least for me, was tremendous and still is.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: ATP Rankings: Alcaraz now fourth for most points. Will he overtake Federer and Nadal?<\/a> The post Federer, Nadal, Djokovic? Former world No 3 names toughest opponent and gives GOAT verdict<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former world No 3 Ivan Ljubicic has revealed which of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic was the \u201cmost difficult\u201d opponent for him as he addressed the GOAT debate. During an illustrious career spanning from 1998 to 2012, Ljubicic regularly crossed paths with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, who are known as the Big Three. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ljubicic\u2019s record against the Big Three<\/h2>\n
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What did Ljubicic say about playing the Big Three?<\/h2>\n
Tennis News<\/h2>\n
Ljubicic on the GOAT debate<\/h2>\n
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