Last weekend he collected his first trophy in Dubai, winning the doubles title alongside India’s Mahesh Bhupathi.
French veteran Michael Llodra is enjoying his 15th year on tour, where he’s won three Grand Slam doubles titles and an Olympic silver medal.
Llodra’s prowess extends to the locker room where he is famed as the ATP’s No1 prankster. Stripping naked and hiding in Ivan Ljubicic’s locker one of many stunts he has pulled.
With Lacoste celebrating their 80th birthday, Sport360° caught up with Llodra, a long-time ambassador for the brand, to get a glimpse of what it’s like to spend all these years travelling and competing.
You’re known to be the tour prankster and I’m really curious, what kind of stuff do you pull off on your fellow players?
I cannot tell you. But I have a philosophy that you have to enjoy being on the court and sometimes when you’re focusing too much or you’re feeling too much pressure on your shoulders, it’s good to be relaxed and joke around a bit.
Can you at least tell me who was your latest victim?
I love to play jokes on Dmitry Tursunov. He’s a really funny guy and he’s one of my best friends on tour.
You have to make sure you live a good life and enjoy your time. You play a lot of singles and doubles, how do you manage your time and what’s your routine like to handle that?
It’s difficult to play good every week singles and doubles that’s what you have to manage. Sometimes you will play only singles, sometimes only doubles and sometimes both.
It also depends on the category of the tournament and also on your family. I have three kids so I have to make sure I can spend enough time with them. But it’s nice. I’m more close to the end than the beginning but you have to right the good combination.
Do your children travel with you on tour?
They’re coming next week. They’re going to be on holiday. My daughter is eight so she goes to school. Also my son. They’ll be spending two weeks with me.
Do you have any specific goals in terms of singles and doubles this season?
I don’t focus so much on my ranking. It’s not my priority. When I start my season I try to figure out where I want to play doubles and it’s pretty simple – I try to win the Slams, that’s the most important thing in tennis and then I choose my singles tournaments.
I was supposed to play singles and doubles in Rotterdam but I was sick so I pulled out, so the week after that I played both. It depends also how I feel on the court physically.
Do you have any favourite stops on tour?
It’s funny, you know I hate the tournament in Indian Wells, California, because it’s too slow and the balls are heavy but the atmosphere is amazing. And also Dubai I love to come here because it’s -5 degrees in Paris and it’s snowing and when I get here it’s 25 degrees and you can go to the beach. I have many friends living here and in Bahrain, so they came to watch me. And every night we go to a different place.
You mentioned Dmitry is a good friend of yours, who else are your best friends on tour?
I love Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich. And also the Belgian guy Olivier Rochus, we are the same age so we came through juniors together and we speak the same language. It’s tough because we travel a lot but also tennis is personal. You play on your own, sometimes you play doubles, but it’s difficult because when you lose you leave so you don’t have too many friends.
You’re a classic serve-and-volleyer, a style which becoming very rare nowadays, how difficult is it to play all those proficient baseliners that are so dominant right now?
I learnt to play like this so if I stay from the baseline I stand no chance for sure and I know that. It’s my style. It was better to play like that a few years back when it was faster but now when you play on the slow courts, you play some guy who is returning so well or has a great passing shot so you have to play aggressive.
Looking at your career, you’ve had some of your very best results at home in France, are you someone who particularly feeds off the energy from the crowd?
I feel very comfortable when I play at home especially in my hometown in Paris so the French Open or Bercy. It’s always special, you have all your family and friends and also my children. We travel too much and when you stay in your home city you feel really good.
Switching to football, I know your father Michel played for Paris Saint-Germain and that you’re a big fan of the club. How did you feel when it was taken over by the Qatari Investment Authority?
I love Qatar. It’s good for the football and for French football. They’re investing a lot in sport and it’s good for us. I support PSG and they have a very good team now.
What do you think of Beckham joining? It’s good, it’s good. He just played his first match so we have to see how he’ll do but I think he has good experience and he has good spirit on the pitch.
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