It was a nice moment for tennis fans all around the world when Roger Federer announced that he is gearing up to feature in the Roland Garros 2021. The Swiss maestro has not featured in a Grand Slam for a long time now and the fans were growing more and more anxious. Returning and competing at Grand Slams will be very challenging for him especially as he is coming back from injury hence he has decided to ease himself into action by playing the Geneva Open.
Recently in an interview, Federer’s former coach Paul Annacone revealed some interesting facts about the Swiss legend. He admitted that he had to be very creative while working with him. Annacone and Federer worked with each other for three years from 2010 to 2012 and in that time he bagged the 2012 Wimbledon title.
“With Roger, I needed to be creative,” said Annacone. “He’s very artistic, likes to hear new things, likes to debate new things.”
Annacone has been into coaching for some time now, the American has coached 14-time Grand Slam winner Pete Sampras. He was with Sampras from 1995 to 2002 and in that period Sampras won several accolades. Hence the American coach shared the challenges of a coach and also compared his experiences of coaching Federer and Sampras.
“With Pete, you know, I needed to be really succinct in giving him information. He didn’t want to sit around and talk about tennis for two hours. You know, you had to figure it out with him,” added the 58-year-old American.
He is currently with American prodigy Taylor Fritz as he has helped the youngster to develop his game and make him stronger. Apart from being a tennis coach he is also a tennis analyst and he works for several media organizations analysing the sport.
All in all, it will be nice to see Federer back in action at the Roland Garros. The 39-year-old tennis legend won’t be just featuring to participate as he will be looking to compete with the very best players and right now looking at his condition that will be a very unrealistic ask from the Swiss maestro. He has had a huge injury layoff and as he returns to full fitness this will be a big step on his way as it won’t be easy to match the energy and the tenacity of players half his age.
