Roger Federer’s former coach admits Novak Djokovic winning the most Grand Slam titles will make the GOAT debate ‘meaningless’

Former World No. 3 and Roger Federer’s coach Ivan Ljubicic shared his opinion on the GOAT debate in a recent interview. He believes that while the concept of there being a greatest of all time is subjective to a person; he admits that Novak Djokovic is now definitely the most successful tennis player in history.

“I feel that Novak is the most successful already, but the word ‘greatest’ implies subjectivity and personal preference. I think that’s good, to be honest – everybody has a preferred GOAT and let the discussion begin,” Ljubicic told Sport Klub.

Ljubicic talked at length about how touting someone the greatest of all time is a matter of perspective. He added that it is more complex than simply selecting the most successful player of all time, and that it includes a host of other factors, which all boils down to the level of influence you have on the sport.

Ljubicic explained this by taking the sport of basketball for example. He said how most players consider Michael Jordan as the GOAT of basketball in spite of there being players with more individual and team achievements than he has. He argues that to a person, the GOAT is “someone that influenced you personally mostly: for a third of the tennis world, it’s Federer, for the other third of the world it’s Nadal and for the final third it’s Novak.”

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Ljubicic touts Novak Djokovic as the most successful player ever

The former Indian Wells champion went on to praise Novak for exuding such dominance on the tour at such a stage in his career, regularly beating players over a decade younger than him. The discussion on the GOAT of tennis notwithstanding, Ljubicic finally remarked that “If Novak wins a few more Slams – which seems likely at this point – then the debate becomes meaningless. If Novak ends up having five to ten more than the others, we won’t have conversations like this anymore.”

He opines that Novak still needs a few more titles in his career to be outright considered the GOAT against his rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Ljubicic himself was a consistent top-10 player during his playing career, and has a Masters 1000 title at the Indian Wells and a semifinal appearance at the French Open. Having retired in 2012, he joined Roger Federer’s coaching team in 2016, and is considered largely responsible for Roger’s renaissance at the Majors in 2017 and 2018.

In case you missed it:

• “It’s always been a holy trinity” – Andy Murray’s inclusion in the same bracket as Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic has fans divided
• Carlos Alcaraz grows in confidence as he dethrones Novak Djokovic as World No. 1 days before Wimbledon

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