By Mike McIntyre
It shouldn't really come as any surprise that after two years together Roger Federer and his childhood idol Stefan Edberg have decided to end their coaching arrangement. Edberg never struck me as someone who wanted to coach full-time and only initially intended for the partnership to last one season. The six time Grand Slam champ was so encouraged by their success together however that he stuck around for another 12 months. Edberg definitely had a positive impact on the 17 time Grand Slam champion despite the fact the duo did not add to his record setting totals at the majors. Edberg leaves with Federer as the third ranked player on the ATP World Tour and perhaps still the biggest threat to undisputed world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Federer will retain Severin Luthi as his main coach for 2016 but has added good friend and former pro Ivan Ljubicic to his coaching staff to replace Edberg. Ljubicic coached Milos Raonic up until the end of this past season. While Ljubicic does not have any Grand Slams to his resume from his days on the Tour, he did still have quite the career that saw him reach a rankings high of No. 3 in the world and he also won ten titles including the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells in 2010.
Here are some of my favourite pictures of the Edberg and Federer partnership that I took back in August of 2014 at the Rogers Cup in Toronto as Federer closes another entertaining chapter of his successful career. Enjoy!
Federer looking very much like he still idolizes Edberg.
An intense shot of the two legends side by side during practice
Comforting to know that even a guy as great as Roger could still take advice at this stage of his illustrious career.