Ljubicic believes Federer would still be playing and top five without injury: "There was no way for him to make a choice to stop"

Former world number three Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic believes that Switzerland’s legendary player Roger Federer would have never stopped playing tennis if his body would’ve permitted it.

The 41-year-old announced an emotional retirement on September 15 2022 in an audio message posted on his officials Twitter account.

That decision was largely taken because Federer suffered multiple injuries in the recent past and found it hard to recover from them because of being on the wrong side of the age.

Ljubicic, who was also the coach of the former world number one, stated that he never had the option to quit tennis but his body just gave up.

“His fitness would go down with time,” he said. “But his genius would keep him top whatever, top-five. The only way he’d stop was if the body couldn’t carry on. He loves it so much, there was no way for him to make a choice to stop.”

Federer remains one of the most successful players in the history of men’s singles tennis in the Open era, having won as many as 20 Grand Slam titles.

He became the first men’s player ever to win more than 15 Grand Slam titles and was also the first to reach 20 major titles.

His first major victory was winning the Wimbledon back in 2003 after beating Australia’s Mark Philippoussis in the final in straight sets with a score of 7–6(7–5), 6–2, 7–6(7–3).

His last big victory was in the year 2018 when he defeated Croatia’s Marin Cilic in the final of the Australian Open in Melbourne in a five-set thriller with a score of 6–2, 6–7(5–7), 6–3, 3–6, 6–1.

Federer also holds the record for the most Wimbledon men’s singles titles. He won the competition eight times and till now is only the player to achieve that feat.