picture © Francesca Sarzetto (ubitennis.com)

Frenchman Michael Llodra retired from tennis in November 2014. Even though he never managed to become an élite player during his professional career, he was admired worldwide for his attacking tennis and for his elegant volleys that sometimes reminded of those played by Stefan Edberg.

In an article written yesterday for the French edition of the Huffington Post, Llodra talked about his tennis idols and explained how his dream came true in his last year on the Tour when he had the opportunity to hit with Stefan Edberg, during the Swede’s first season as Roger Federer’s coach.

Edberg, he was really my idol. I loved his style of play. I practiced with him when he coached Federer. That day, I was hitting balls with Roger in training and Stefan told me that he had seen my match against Djokovic in Bercy and he wanted to bring Federer to play more serve & volley, as I did, to shorten rallies. Djokovic and Nadal are so physical and playing long rallies might become somewhat problematic. Edberg had appreciated my game. I was happy like a kid.