ANNACONE

 

For Federer, a Coach Who Links Eras of Tennis Greatness

By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY

MELBOURNE — Pete Sampras was on the phone or the screen or whatever one is on these days, and Paul Annacone was keeping his friend and former employer informed, his thumbs typing an Australian Open update.

“Just texting Pete; he always likes to see what’s going on, what the conditions are like, who’s playing, that kind of stuff,” Annacone said on Sunday as he walked into the players’ lounge. “I think he just watched Roger. He told me to tell Roger, ‘Good win and good luck.”’

Annacone, a 47-year-old American, is now the most tangible link between two remarkable tennis eras and the two champions who, along with Rod Laver, make every short list of all-time great men’s players.

Annacone coached Sampras from 1995, with one short break, until Sampras officially retired in 2003, and Annacone is now one of Roger Federer’s two coaches along with Severin Luethi, joining up last July on a trial basis before becoming part of the staff with the brief to fit in seamlessly while providing fresh thinking.

A former touring professional who peaked at No. 12 in the world, Annacone is well aware of his good fortune.

“I do feel really lucky,” he said. “Not only have I been with these two guys; I’ve also been with Tim Henman, a perennial top 10 player and one of the best guys ever as a person to walk on a tennis court. So I’ve been with three great players and more importantly three great people, so sometimes I wake up and go ‘Wow’, and I do feel kind of blessed to have had this opportunity.

“But I think part of my good fortune, I hope, is because of my work ethic and personality and the perspective that I view the game with and the history I have soaked up as a bit of a sponge in the last 25 years.”

José Higueras, now a top coach with the United States Tennis Association, also worked briefly with Sampras and then, for a short time, with Federer. But Annacone, who also has been in charge of player development for the U.S.T.A. and the British Lawn Tennis Association, is now in position to make a longer-term impact on both the player of the 1990s and the player of the 2000s.

Annacone said Sampras was enthusiastic about his decision to work with Federer. “His response was, ‘Jeez, that’s great. How many people have gotten to coach him and me? Not a lot.’ And he likes Roger.”

Annacone and Luethi generally take turns traveling, staying in touch by text or telephone so as not to send Federer mixed signals. “That’s how it generally works, but usually whoever is there kind of takes the driver’s seat,” Annacone said.

Luethi, a Swiss who has been Federer’s friend since childhood, was on duty in Doha, Qatar, for Federer’s first official event of the year. But Annacone is on duty here and also plans to be with Federer at the tour events in Indian Wells, California, and Miami. Annacone, who has two grown children, homes in East Hampton, New York, and Topanga, California, near Malibu, said splitting the travel and coaching duties with Luethi suits him well. “To me it’s been really nice, kind of fit like a glove,” he said.

Annacone was a net-rushing player before a herniated disc in his back cut short his career, and both Sampras and Henman were at their most effective moving forward, which is one reason Federer has brought Annacone on board. The goal, clearly, has been not an overhaul but a tweak.

“It’s important to question yourself, and that’s what I’ve always been doing since I got to world No. 1 in 2004,” Federer said Sunday after defeating Tommy Robredo of Spain, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the fourth round.

Annacone said his and Federer’s emphasis was on “just more offensive stuff, using his athleticism.”

“Everyone that watches can see,” he said. “There’s no magic pill, no secret whispering with voodoo dolls going on. It’s about him being one of the few guys who can play a number of different ways at the highest level, so for him it’s about managing that.”

Federer lost in the semifinals of the U.S. Open last year to Novak Djokovic in Annacone’s first major tournament on board. But his results have been, in general, on the upswing, and he has continued to push forward with greater frequency here, winning 36 of 50 points at the net against Robredo. But it has hardly been a routine first week, with Federer requiring five sets to defeat Gilles Simon of France in the second round.

The second week looks particularly daunting this year, with all three men left in Federer’s half of the draw — Djokovic, Tomas Berdych and Federer’s quarterfinal opponent Stanislas Wawrinka — in impressive form. Wawrinka, who won the Olympic gold medal in doubles with Federer for Switzerland in 2008, ripped past Andy Roddick, the last American left in singles, in straight sets on Sunday.

“I think it’s hard because you know when the bar is set so high people tend to get sensationalistic about what’s going on, and I think it’s my job to kind of help keep that perspective,” Annacone said. “Roger’s a great player, and he’s been playing well since August and if he wins in Australia, great, and if he doesn’t, that’s fine. There’s nothing broken yet. He’s feeling good. His game is progressing. We’re working on themes, and we kind of just have to keep looking at it that way, but it’s tough because you set a pretty high bar.”

Coaching Federer is a privilege that indeed has a potential dark side. For a man who has won a record 16 Grand Slam singles titles — 2 more than Sampras — the only good-news results are more Grand Slam singles titles. But Annacone, unlike just about anyone else, has been here before. He took over as Sampras’s coach on an interim basis in March 1995, when Annacone’s friend Tim Gullikson, then Sampras’s coach, had become increasingly ill with the brain tumor that would ultimately kill him.

Sampras, at that stage, was already No. 1 but with Annacone’s support, he would win eight more Grand Slam titles, culminating with the 2002 U.S. Open when Sampras, at the age of 31, had not won a major in more than two years and was widely considered in decline.

For Annacone, the big difference between the two is that the multilingual Federer, a 29-year-old Swiss who is now married with twin girls, is much more eager to keep traveling the circuit and sample its cultures than Sampras was at the same age. The commonalities include their ability to make the difficult seem routine.

“They can play at an unbelievably high level efficiently, and even Rafa can’t do that and he’s one of the greatest ever,” Annacone said of Rafael Nadal. “That’s no slight against Rafa. He plays great, but believe me, it takes a lot more out of Rafa to play great than it does out of Roger or Pete.”

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