ROLAND GARROS

June 6, 2025

Ivan Ljubicic

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French, please.

Q. Good morning. Lois's performance that has led her to being French No. 1, is this going to encourage women's tennis in France to encourage the others and to create an emulation effect? What about her adaptability? She's never played here. How is her future going to look to you?

IVAN LJUBICIC: The answer to the first question is that, yes, I hope so, that she sets a good example with her hard work and dedication, and we could get good results from this quite fast.

I think we looked at her ranking. I think she's 66 or 67. It's not a fantastic ranking, to be honest, but I think she deserves to rise even further because all the points that she got are points from this year. So I think that she's 30, and I think she can continue on this pathway for the end of the year.

I thought last year that Lois was capable of doing great things. When she got a wildcard, and then we want to talk about wildcards later -- it's something that I'm interested in -- and I think that she won four tournaments, she was really ready to go to her first French Open, and unfortunately, she was injured, and she took all the necessary time to recover.

This year I think she had the career that she should have had last year. So I'm not incredibly surprised by what she did. I know Lois's level, and when she played the tournament 60K and 75K, she showed that she had the level to beat very strong players.

Of course, I hope that the others are going to see that everything is possible. Lois is 100% focused on her project. This is very important personally for me to see how her team and the mentality all function together, and I hope they're going to continue to progress.

For lawn tennis, we talked about this just before. It's a very special surface. Of course, if you look at Lois's technique and her way of using topspin and lifted forehand shots, she can't do that on grass. Of course, she can always try, but it's a lot more complicated, so she's got to adapt her game.

But I think that she's capable, and with the service that she has, I think she can win a lot of points. Also, she's got to improve her slice, but I trust her coach totally that they're going to find a way to be competitive.

But we have to talk about the qualifications first. But I said to Florian that she should ask for a wildcard. In Wimbledon they've got a different way of deciding these sort of things, who gets the wildcard and who doesn't, but I think that she's going to have a place in this conversation to see if she gets a wildcard or not.

It's very important that she plays a little on grass this year, because next year she definitely will. That's sure.

Q. We talked about mental strength this week. We are talking about Lois. She talked about it herself. Could this inspire a lot of young girls around her? Are there things that you could explore or avenues of action that you could explore? This is a recurring subject in French tennis. Is there something that she showed you that you could be thinking about?

IVAN LJUBICIC: Yes, we talk every day about mental strength. Personally, I think that this is not the decisive factor. People talk a lot about mental strength, but you gain trust and confidence through training, when you do physical work, when you feel your strengths grow.

Then you're a lot better in your mind afterwards. Of course, if you have a particular problem, you have to try to find a specific solution.

But it's a little bit complicated when you talk about mental preparation. You talk about mental preparation and concentration, and the other side, the psychology and psychiatry. So you have to be precise when you are talking about this subject, because it is very broad.

I think that Lois, she was very focused. I like talking more about focused. It's how to deal with pressure and expectations, and she was in a bubble where she was totally focused on what she was doing.

She succeeded in this tournament, and she's going to other tournaments where she's not going to succeed, but she was capable of being totally focused on her tennis and to manage her emotions, that's sure.

Q. A few years ago there was a French guy who was a rising star, Hugo Gaston, but he didn't live up to his promise. Raducanu as well. Are you afraid of this for Lois Boisson? What other dangers could lurk out there for her? There's lots of new things for her to manage like money and tournaments, et cetera.

IVAN LJUBICIC: Things aren't simple. I think that Lois is going to manage this just like she managed the situation here, and she's going to gain in confidence. And to rise to 66th, this isn't the same pressure as if she had won the Grand Slam, as Raducanu did.

But her life is not going to change all that much. Of course, her career is going to change a little because she's going to be in new tournaments, but we're talking about tennis here. Her life is going to continue a little like it was.

Of course, if she goes all the way to the final in Wimbledon and wins the US Open, then that's a different dimension, but she's not there yet.

With respect to Hugo Gaston, he was, unfortunately, hurt, as you know. This year we've had a lot of players in that situation, in particular Hugo. This is why we've had a lot of bad luck to have this happen to our best players in France, and they were obliged to withdraw.

Imagine if Sinner and Musetti had to withdraw. Then, of course, Italy would be in a bad way as well. I'm not trying to imply that Hugo would have got all the way to the semifinals, but we're not talking about him a lot this year because everybody is concentrated on Lois. Hugo is a phenomenon that doesn't happen every year.

Ugo Humbert, I think he's fine. He's going to play on grass. Hugo Gaston has a serious injury, so he has to have a lot more time for his recovery. We didn't have a lot of luck this year.

But just to come back to Hugo Gaston, I didn't know him at the time. I think he's a very kind guy who is capable of producing very good tennis. I don't think he necessarily has the ambition to be in the top 10, but Hugo is working with Younès now. He's working with him.

When he plays, I get the impression that he's not trying to do something extraordinary with his tennis. He can be a little passive. When I saw that match at the beginning, there was a lot of dropshots. When you don't know the players very well, you win a lot of matches, but you're not going to play your whole career with lobs or dropshots.

This is a player who does things differently, but he didn't get to the quarterfinal with a dropshot. We've got to continue to try to make progress and to add things to your arsenal and not just to try to surprise your opponents.

Q. With Arthur, this is a recurring point since his youth. Now he's got a bigger staff than before, but should he pay more attention for this type of injury in order to anticipate?

IVAN LJUBICIC: Yes. You've got to pay better care. You've got to pay attention with your back, because Gabby Debru, who was operated on the wrist, didn't have a lot of good luck, but with your wrist you can slice and use your forehand, so you can train normally.

When you come back, it's easier to get back into things. But when you have problems with your abdominals or your back, it's a lot more difficult. So I hope he's going to recover very quickly and pay attention, because I saw Berrettini with his abdominals. He's got continuing problems in that zone. I consider that that's one of the most difficult injuries to manage. And we know what back injuries are. You've got to follow a strict protocol.

Roger had a problem in 2013 with his back, and he found a solution eventually. It's something that you can manage by applying a strict protocol and by being very disciplined. When you've got a problem with your abdominal area, it's a lot more complicated.

Unfortunately, we've got a lot of people who have got problems there. Not just in France, but internationally. I think this is to do with service technique, because when you look at the technique today, they don't rotate the shoulders. I find that absolutely incredible.

Everybody is serving with their abdominal muscles and with the back, and I think that biomechanically speaking, it's not very efficient. I think that that's the principal reason why we have so many players who are down with their abdominal muscles, because normally when you have a backhand or a forehand, you don't use your abdominal muscles. It's only with your service. But I have never had problems with my abdominal muscles.

The technique has evolved, and we've got to make sure that it's used correctly. When you look eight, nine, ten years down the road, when you are talking about the responsibility and liability of the Federation, this is what we've got to be careful with. We've got to be sure that the players are using correct techniques in order to not be subjected to injuries and damage their career.

Q. You said Hugo Gaston doesn't necessarily have the ambition to be in the top 10. Do you think Lois Boisson has the right mentality to be in the top 10? The next question, with respect to clay, this is a young girl who's grown up on clay courts, but does this lead the Federation to think about training and education?

IVAN LJUBICIC: Well, Hugo Gaston, I'm not saying that he's unambitious, but I think that he didn't try to progress and improve. I'm sure if we were to ask Hugo if he wants to be part of the top 10, he would say yes, but I think it's a little late.

You've got to understand the concept of ambition. This is something that happens between 18 and 22, 23 years old, so that you can continue to progress your pathway, so at 26, 27, it's possible, of course, but it's a lot more complicated.

Now with respect to clay court training and education, we haven't attained the required level yet, but we've got to keep working on it. We agree that we've got to play on clay courts. Not just to win at Roland Garros, of course, but because the idea is that for general training, it's good to play on clay and not on hard courts.

I talked with Juan Carlos Ferrero a few months ago, and he said, I've always played on hard courts until I was 14 years old, and he won Roland Garros. There's no one-size-fits-all.

In the Spanish school, you train on varied surfaces. You can vary your trajectory. It's a different way of constructing your points. It's a different culture. This is why I think that the Spanish naturally and historically play well on clay.

Q. You wanted to talk to us about wildcards. Why did you stop the wildcard race?

IVAN LJUBICIC: Talking about wildcards, I think that a lot of players don't understand what a wildcard is, but if you call it an invitation, because that's what the concept is about, which means that you don't have the ranking to play in the tournament, so the organizer -- here, this is the Federation -- gives you an invitation to come to the tournament.

This is why we've got a lot of defeats, because you're inviting people who don't have the ranking, so they don't have the level, to come and play in the tournament, and sometimes this doesn't work. In the junior qualifications, people were beaten because we invited people to the tournament, we invited them to play in the qualifications. A lot of them didn't win.

So I think it is important to explain the process, how we decide whether people are invited or not. So there's a million factors that come into account. It's different for juniors, for challengers, for the ATP, and for wheelchair, and for Roland Garros. We invite players who don't have the level they deserve and give them a possibility.

I think that it's very important to be absolutely clear that a player doesn't deserve their invitation. They deserve to be part of a group of players that are taken into consideration to get a wildcard. That's what's important.

Here, in Roland Garros, and me personally, because what happens here is I gave out 92 invitations for wildcards for all the different qualifications that are there. If everybody loses in the first round, we're giving 1.9 million Euros away. Then when people are asking what we're doing for professional tennis, I'm just talking about the prize money for the first round. I'm not talking about Lois, who has won 600,000.

So indirectly, we're giving money to players to finance their career. I can understand that people are disappointed. Harmony Tan, I can understand her position, but she's had six wildcards. Three wildcards for the qualifications for Grand Slam and other invitations. We've really helped Harmony.

We don't just look at the ranking, because for me, the invitation doesn't just concern the ranking. It's to give them a trampoline for the season and for their career. Lois Boisson used it perfectly. When we invite someone, it's because we really hope that this is the tournament that's going to help them relaunch their career.

If somebody is obliged to have eight or nine wildcards, it means that the invitation or wildcard isn't working, so we have to make decisions. So we decide to give it to someone else who deserves their chance to launch their career or to have experience for the coming year.

This is why we gave out cards to the '08 or '09 generation. To Daphnee. Daphnee got the card in 2023, 2024, and finally in 2025 she won a match. So this is the underpinning logic behind the wildcards.

But I don't like wildcards. It's an invitation. We invite people. And there are other things that the federations do for players. We've got structures, we've got services, and we've also got the medical services.

So from last year on, we started to have Vincent Guillard, who is the doctor for the Federation who is at all the Grand Slams for all the players in order to have regular medical monitoring, and we're going to continue to do our utmost for the players.

Sorry. Now I've forgotten your question.

Q. (Off microphone).

IVAN LJUBICIC: With Amelie, we discussed this case quite a lot, but he wasn't consistent, because we had tournaments on hard surfaces, and this year, we analyzed the results on clay in France.

So we looked at other factors as well, because you look at everything when you decide to invite someone or not. You've got to see, do they have the physical condition to go?

So we cut out some people. I don't know if we're going to adjust things a little next year. You've got to study all the available factors. It's not that we don't want to give players the possibility to win. We've studied a lot of different options and possibilities to give people access.

It's not an easy issue.

Q. So for wildcards, the Federation of a Grand Slam, like Roland Garros or like in the United States or in Australia, they give national wildcards. It's a way of distributing money. Sometimes we can be shocked by the profusion of wildcards who are given to national players. What do you think?

IVAN LJUBICIC: We represent international tennis, but we do represent the countries hosting the tournament. This is why Wimbledon gives wildcards to foreigners because Wimbledon isn't organized by the British Federation.

Here, we organize. We are leading the function of tennis in France, so we really try to help French players. This year we gave the invitation to Wawrinka because he's a former champion here, and I think he deserved it.

For Roland Garros, the priority is for French players. I can understand for Wimbledon it's not the same logic. Wimbledon studies things different, but of course, the focus is on local players.

Just to answer the first part of your question, I think that these invitations aren't given out correctly. I'm Croatian. I can tell you that it was a different career for me, and when I got a wildcard somewhere, it was absolutely incredible.

Here it's the other way around. It's if you don't get a wildcard, there's an uproar. That's the advantage that I hope that the agents and parents and players understand, that we've got this wonderful luck to be able to organize lots of tournaments and to be able to give so many people a trampoline for their future career. That's the idea underpinning the invitations, to invite somebody who doesn't have the ranking but has potential and is going to use the opportunity to launch their season or their career.

Q. I'm sticking to invitations, and I would like to talk about a player that has missed twice or so, Atmane. He missed twice the wildcard opportunity. He missed the launching-pad type of opportunity.

IVAN LJUBICIC: Well, he's still quite young. That's player that could play well. I really like Terence. I'm a big fan of him.

I actually speak with him on a regular basis. We invited him with the president. We tried to explain to him the opportunity that he could have and the technical and physical potential he has.

Sometimes he loses focus, and he doesn't have the right mentality. I think he's got all the tools that are necessary to play at a very interesting level. When I'm talking about interesting level, I'm talking about top 20, top 30, because physically he's very strong. Technically he's got everything. But he needs time to understand how to use it all and how to spend energy from a mental point of view.

It's difficult to handle for him. He has made improvements. Things are going better, but we're not there yet. Then if we talk about players that could play on every surface, I think that he has the possibility to play, you know, his forehand like this with topspin, because he's a lefty.

Of course, there's Richard Gasquet, but to have such a strong forehand like this is incredible. But then there's difficulties. I don't want to talk about problems, but we've seen difficulties with Terence, the way he handles the crowd and pressure. There's still some work to do here.

Q. The junior tournament didn't stand out, I have to say. It was pretty underwhelming.

IVAN LJUBICIC: Yes, Lois especially is the only player that deserved to be in. Ksenia Efremova had a special exempt because she actually won in Charleroi. This is how we managed to get one back.

As for Moise, he didn't play any junior tournaments, so he didn't have the ranking, and he played Ivanov in Milan the week before. So he's going through a difficult patch, because he's lost 17 matches in a row. Even if he won a lot of sets, afterwards there's a lack of focus. Maybe it's related to letdowns, and maybe he's got a problem regarding his fitness.

Q. (Off microphone).

IVAN LJUBICIC: I would like to have better results, as every time, but there are some positive things. As for Ksenia, she played much better than during the quallies. I'm not looking too much into it. I'm trying to watch matches when I can, but there are so many to watch. She played better on the junior tour rather than during the quallies, but you have to watch.

With Ksenia, we shouldn't exert too much pressure, because she plays well, but it's not Monica Seles either. We need to be patient. She's top 10 worldwide for her age-group ranking. She's got a great coach. There's a great structure.

I'm sure she'll make improvements, but we shouldn't exert too much pressure on her shoulders. She's reached that point, and expectations on her are very strong, very high. Maybe it wasn't realistic, but I'm sure she'll play.

Same thing for the 2008/2009 generation with Daphnee, Eleejah, Cindy. I'm sure we're going to have top-100, top-50 female tennis players.

Q. I'm following up on the trampoline aspect. There's Gilles Simon, for instance, that didn't go to the end. Are we missing actually good coaches in France that we have to look for Philippe in Belgium?

IVAN LJUBICIC: I didn't ask Philippe to come over. Actually, I was asked my opinion. I was asked what I thought about Philippe, and I said that I had a very good opinion about him.

What all matters is a matter of level. He's an expert in the field. He has a lot of experience with boys and girls. He had a lot of responsibilities.

I think that he has a lot of skills. He can communicate well, especially for this age group. It's very important at that time. He's a super coach. May he be French or not, he speaks French. That's something positive, honestly.

Even Sven Groeneveld, he was someone with whom we tried to work, but when you don't speak French, it's complicated, I can tell you. I have experience.

At the beginning, it's not easy when you don't speak the language. Within the Federation, when I speak with the management, we often say, Oh, he's got to be a French player.

We shouldn't work this way. If you have the necessary skill set and you are in France, well, then yes, we can use that person. We need skill sets. If we can find them abroad, then it would be a good thing also to use them.