Ivan Ljubicic to coach Félix Auger-Aliassime while keeping his FFT role

Félix Auger-Aliassime ended the guessing game on Friday: “Excited to start a new chapter with Ivan. Let’s get to work”, the Canadian wrote on X. The Ivan in question is Ivan Ljubicic, former world No 3 and Roger Federer’s coach in the closing years of the Swiss’s career. Tom Kershaw of The Times had revealed the hiring a day earlier; L’Équipe confirmed it.

Two jobs, and the FFT’s blessing

The Croat keeps his position at the French Tennis Federation. He joined at the end of 2022 as performance director and left that job in the reorganisation of 26 August: Gilles Simon took over the performance side, and Ljubicic stayed on as special advisor to president Gilles Moretton. The federation approved the arrangement and replied under the Croat’s Instagram post: “The best for this adventure, and we look forward to continuing ours.”

That “surprising mix of roles”, as RMC Sport calls it, has a direct consequence: hired by the FFT to promote French tennis, Ljubicic will now work for the world No 5, in direct rivalry with French players. Auger-Aliassime and Arthur Fils could meet up to four times before the end of the season, in Shanghai, Brussels, Basel and at the Paris Masters.

Ten years with Fontang, a first-round exit in Beijing

Auger-Aliassime had been waiting for a name since 10 July and the end of a ten-year partnership with Frédéric Fontang, the coach with whom he reached No 4 in the world. Fifth in the rankings, he sits only fifteenth in the Race, and his restart ended in Beijing: a 6-3, 6-3 first-round loss to Karen Khachanov in 1h11 on Wednesday.

Length of the partnership, start date, how the coaching job and the federation office fit together: none of this is settled yet, and Ljubicic has not spoken. A first test could come as early as the Shanghai Masters 1000, which begins on 7 October.