Federer Checks Out Paul Annacone!

by 

Folkert Hesse

After some disappointing results in the past months Roger Federer is training with Paul Annacone on a trial basis for a few days in Switzerland.

Annacone, who is the former coach of Pete Sampras has cut down his work for the British Tennis Federation and therefore has some spare time to share with Big Fed.

Since Annacone is a soft spoken guy and knows how to handle a talented players like Sampras and Henman, he might be the right guy to offer some humble suggestions to Federers game and training. Or to put it in other words, he might be the right coach not to disturb a genius at work too much… Since I don’t really think that Roger really wants a coach who pushes him too much. Federer is loaded with talent and he believes that he can beat anybody anywhere when he is confident, motivated and in a good mood.

So, it is good to know that Roger is realistic enough again to realize that his recent losses have not come because of injuries or some kind of sickness, like he mentioned in a press conference after he loss in Wimbledon…

Hopefully he will listen to Annacone and hopefully Annacone will have the nerve to push the big Fed to break a few more sweats in training.

But so far I have not seen a coach who dared to do so with King Roger.

We will see… but something big has to change for Roger to win the US-Open. He might not get lucky twice and have Nadal, Del Potro and Davydenko injured at the same time…

H. F.  HESSE

HESSE TENNIS TRAINING

High Performance Training and Coaching for Top Juniors and Professionals

WWW.HESSETENNISTRAINING.COM

Where are you going Roger?

By  


FOLKERT HESSE

What a turn around for Roger (and Rafa) in the past 4 months after winning the Australian Open in great fashion and looking at a possible Grand Slam for the 2010 season.

Now Rogers card house is shattered and he is only no. 3 in the world and 4000 points behind Rafa in the ATP Rankings and chanceless to regain the top spot by the end of the season. But it might be even more devastating for him, that he will realize now that all his great successs in 2009, with regaining his no. 1 ranking, winning the French and Wimbledon after a neck breaking loss to Rafa in the Australian Open Final, was only possible because Rafa did not play or was injured. After the loss at the Australian Open in 2009 Federer was down in tears and everybody was feeling with him and admired that he was not afraid to show his emotions. But I thought that it was a big mistake to show how fragile he really is, when he is playing “Mr. Cool” during his matches all the time. Now not only Nadal saw the weakness in Roger and that it is possible to break him down. Federer’s tears showed every other player how big this loss was and how afraid he was that he might not get Grand Slam victory no. 15 and break Pete’s record, even though he was still young enough. But at this time there was a player he just couldn’t beat anymore, Rafa Nadal. And Rafa was getting better and better and looked like he will wait in each and every big final for Roger. Then Federer got big,big help from the Gods of tennis, and Rafa was stoped with knee injuries and personal problems from his parents divorce. Without this help from destiny, I don’t think that Roger would have been able to beat Nadal in Madrid, take the titles at the French and Wimbledon from Rafa and his No. 1 ranking back.

But he did and everyone was saying how great a champion he is to come back like this. But he did it only because another, maybe even bigger champion… , was not there or able to fight back.

But now Rafa did all that with a healthy Roger in front of him. That is REALLY big!

So, I would like to know how Roger sees all this?!

He was talking of some health problems after Halle, but this makes it even worse, because he is not the only ATP player playing through the pain. Rafa had no time to celebrate his victories at home yet, because he is getting treatment for his knees right now. He had knee problems all year long and still got these great victories! How sweet these titles must feel for him now!?

But what about Roger? What will he make out of all this? If he is honest to himself he will have to realize that he will not win many more Grand Slams unless Nadal and Del Potro are injured. But his wife wants him to play for many more years, so his daughters can see him play. And he himself also said that he loves the game so much, that he wants to play much, much longer. But does he still love the game when he is losing against players he did not lose to before and takes the plane home after the first week of a grand slam?

Well, the US-Open and maybe the ATP Finals are another chance to fight back, but I doubt that he will win one of the events. Maybe he can take some motivation from trying to prove people wrong, when more journalists and experts see him going down. And with his talent he can still win Grand Slams in his 30’s, just like Pete Sampras. But if Nadal stays healthy he has a very big mountain to climb…

H. F.  HESSE

HESSE TENNIS TRAINING

High Performance Training and Coaching for Top Juniors and Professionals

WWW.HESSETENNISTRAINING.COM

Nadal on Top of the World

by 


FOLKERT HESSE

Nadal wins his 8^th Grand Slam final and captures his second Wimbledon title to secure a big lead in the ATP world rankings.

He is now almost 4000 points ahead of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, who is only ranked at No. 3 for the first time since 2003. And Federer is almost chanceless to take back the top spot from Rafa by the end of this season, which was one of his big goals for 2010 (having the No. 1 spot at the end of the year and breaking Sampras record of 286 weeks at the top of the ATP-Rankings).

What a great turnaround for Rafa Nadal who had to watch how Federer was taking everything away from him last year, while he was in pain about his knee injury and his parents divorce. When Nadal lost to Soderling last year at Roland Garrros due to his bad knees, Roger took this opportunity and captured his first French Open title. And when Nadal had to withdraw from Wimbledon as well and was not able to defend his title from 2008, Federer also took this title from him. But Rafa not only lost these two titles to Roger, he also lost his No. 1 world ranking to Federer without being able to fight for it. What a hard time for Rafa this must have been, especially if you consider that his knee problems could be career threatening.

So, he had to watch how Federer took everything away from him he had worked so hard for. Much harder than Federer ever worked, even though he is always telling everybody how hard he does. But I have seen both practice and I can assure you that Roger does not even come close to Rafas work ethic… He is all about talent.

But all this makes Nadals victories even sweeter and he will enjoy his place on top of the tennis world for the rest of the year. Even if Roger wins all 3 ATP 1000 events, the US-Open and the World Tour Finlas he will probably not be No.1 at the end of the year, because Nadal will play a much better hard court season than before and will also gain more points. And I don’t see him losing to Roger Federer by the end of this year and maby not so soon again at all, unless his knees hold him off again.

Maybe Roger will never be No. 1 again at all and it is time for a new generation of players like Berdych, Soderling and hopefully a soon recovered Del Potro. But if Nadals body is not breaking down, he might sit on top of the world for a long time. Maybe even longer than Pete Sampras…

H. F.  HESSE

HESSE TENNIS TRAINING

High Performance Training and Coaching for Top Juniors and Professionals

WWW.HESSETENNISTRAINING.COM