Ivanisevic backs Federer to shine at Wimbledon

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  • Packing a punch: Ivanisevic feels Federer (above) is getting back to his best.

    Former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic believes Roger Federer remains a contender at the All England Club but chooses top-seeded Novak Djokovic as his favourite for the title.

    The last time Federer won a major was two years ago here at Wimbledon when he defeated Andy Murray in the final and the Swiss has been unable to add to his tally of 17 grand slams since then.

    The Swiss saw a dip in his form last season which was plagued with back problems but has emerged much fitter in 2014.

    Although much of the focus here is on reigning champion Andy Murray and Djokovic, Ivanisevic says Federer should not be discarded from the favourites conversation. 

    “He (Federer) still has it in him. It’s a good surface for him. He won here many times. He’s playing much better, already in Australia he showed he’s playing much more aggressive than before, that’s the influence of Stefan (Edberg his new coach), he changed the racquet,” Ivanisevic told Sport360° at the HSBC zone, where he was entertaining fans lining up in the famous Wimbledon Queue.

    “He’s not going to make the same mistake like last year – so I can see him going far and he’s for sure one of the favourites to win.”

    Ivanisevic, who is currently the coach of No26 seed Marin Cilic, does believe Djokovic, the 2011 champion, has an edge though.

    “For me my favourite is Novak. Last year he was, this year again. He’s picking up his form at the right moment. He’s going to look even better and better round by round,” said the Croat.

    “Rafa (Nadal) we know last year he didn’t do well but this year, as soon as Rafa is in the second week then watch out.”

    Ivanisevic won Wimbledon in 2001 when the courts were relatively faster than they are now and serve-and-volley was the typical style that was played on grass. This week, players like Grigor Dimitrov and Sergiy Stakhovsky have displayed some beautiful net play but Ivanisevic says there’s no way serve-and-volley will make a comeback as long as the courts are this slow.

    “Like this, impossible!” insisted the 42-year-old.

    “I’m still a fan of aggressive tennis. That’s why the best tennis played this year was played at the Australian Open.

    “They put much faster courts, used much faster balls and you could see (Stan) Wawrinka going for his shots and it paid off, because sometimes you go for the shots but it doesn’t pay off and everything comes back so you don’t know what to do. In Australia it paid off.”

    Ivanisevic believes his student, Cilic, has a shot at going far this fortnight. The former world No9 has made the second week at Wimbledon in 2008 and 2012 but Ivanisevic believes he can go further now.

    He added: “I told Marin ‘seven matches here, you can’t play seven matches unbelievably, nobody can. But big guys, they play bad but still manage to win those matches’.

    “So sometimes with him it’s a problem that when he plays bad, he really plays bad. So he has to try and overcome that and win those matches.

    “He’s starting to get that belief, but you can’t get it overnight. For me he has an okay draw to reach the quarters, semis or final.

    "To beat somebody you need to step up and sometimes say ‘okay, it doesn’t matter if I play Berdych, or Gulbis, or Djokovic, guys I’m going to beat you’.

    "He showed me in the French, he played an amazing match against Novak. It was very risky but it was the only way. But it was tough four sets. That’s why I have expectations."

    (Goran Ivanisevic is an HSBC Ambassador. As the Official Banking Partner to The Championships, HSBC is helping fans get closer to Wimbledon)

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