Interview with Ivan Ljubicic: “Happy to support I Tennis Campus: it’s my story”

An amazing career and a life made for movie screens of a figure whose intelligence and down-to-earth nature cannot but win you over. Ivan Ljubicic has chosen to support I Tennis Foundation “because it’s the story of what happened to me and I see myself in the boys and girls who will receive this opportunity. Because it’s the same that I had 28 years ago. I know what they will live through, how they will feel. And I will be happy to give my contribution for their growth”. Incredible player (he will climb his way to third in the world), Ljubicic reached the top also as a coach. His friend Roger thinks of him to win again and is right to. With Ljubo in his corner, King Federer cashes in 3 Slams and becomes the oldest number 1 ATP of all time.
Tell us of your life before the war?
“I lived in Banja Luka in Bosnia. I started playing because one day my father asked me what sport I would have liked to do and I was watching Wimbledon on tv, Becker and Edberg were playing, so I said tennis”.
Your father was fundamental for your career.
“He played football but had to stop early at 20 years old to go work. He had not received the support of his family to continue, and for this he wanted to give me the possibility of expressing myself through sport”.
Then the civil war broke out.
“The only thing to do was to flee, with the idea of returning when the situation would go back to normal. At that moment we didn’t know that the decision to leave would have become definitive”.
What do you remember of that period?
“From one day to the next the friend who lived next door or your godfather become all of a sudden your enemies. All of a sudden no school, everyone was stuck indoors. One day my father told me: I’m going to try to take you playing tennis. We get in the car and soon after we find a checkpoint with armed fighters. There I understood that the situation was unbearable”.
Scared?
“I remember my parents’ fear, most of all my mother’s. For me on the other hand, a 13-year-old boy, it was all a bit relative. Surely I felt it when I saw those people with machineguns aimed at us who were asking us where we were headed. That is without a doubt the moment of my youth that made me shake”.
The refugee camp in Croatia.
“They were the six hardest months of my life because we knew nothing of my father. Before saying goodbye however, he gave my mom a task: whatever may happen, Ivan must keep playing tennis”.
Your character was forged in that period?
“I asked myself the same thing. The truth is that I’m a person who looks forward, not back. Rarely have I thought of the past like an extra motivation. I don’t recall having ever thought ‘I am a child of war, now I will beat you’. It only works like that in movies”.
The arrival in Italy, in Moncalieri.
“We understood that it was the only possibility to become a professional tennist player. I remember the white van with the inscription Le Pleiadi that came to pick us up in Trieste, the trip and the arrival in this spectacular place: we couldn’t believe having ended up in the most important club in Europe”.
When did you understand that you could become a tennis player?
“There was nothing to understand because playing tennis was the only way to survive. Not having another choice was my fortune”.
After a great career, at the end of 2015 comes Federer’s call.
“When Roger asked me to train him he surprised me, I didn’t know he was looking for another coach. I was proud that he thought I could give him something more. He hadn’t won a Slam in five years and I firmly believed he could do it again. It probably was the most important moment of my career”.