Roger Federer’s former coach recalls anecdote of Wimbledon title that tennis great ‘should not have won’

Shahida Jacobs 06 Oct 2023 8:42 AM

Roger Federer 2012 Wimbledon final cardigan

One of Roger Federer’s greatest strengths as a player was his ability to not sweat over things that he couldn’t control, according to Paul Annacone with the renowned coach revealing an interesting story about the Swiss’ 2012 Wimbledon title run.

Annacone coached Federer from mid-2010 until 2013 and they won only one major during that period – Wimbledon in 2012 – although there were also some heartbreaking losses as the tennis great lost the 2011 French Open final against Rafael Nadal and twice suffered five-set defeats to Novak Djokovic in the semi-final of the US Open.

The American also worked with Pete Sampras, Tim Henman and Sloane Stephens while he is currently part of world No 10 Taylor Fritz’s coaching set-up.

During a recent interview on Jonathan Stokke’s podcast Baseline Intelligence, Annacone was asked what he learned from coaching the likes of Federer and revealed that the Swiss could not fret over the little things in life.

“One of the reasons why I like coaching so much is that I think I have learned from everyone that I have coached,” he replied. “I learned a bunch from Roger and I learned a ton from Taylor when he was 20 and he was a kid. I learned about thought processes, about things that he does, why he does them, how that could impact other players. I learned a bunch from Sloane Stephens, and Tim Henman.

“And you mentioned Roger. One of the things I’ve learned about Roger is how important it is to be able to let go of things you can’t control and how important it is to be able to really stay in the moment and to be content with trying to execute your game plan even if it’s not successful.

“What I mean by that is he’s one of the best people that I’ve ever seen at not sweating the small stuff and not sweating things that he can’t control.”

Annacone then shared an interesting anecdote about Federer’s 2012 Wimbledon title where he overcame injury in the earlier rounds before beating Djokovic in the semi-final and Andy Murray in the final to lift his 17th Grand Slam trophy, which was a record at the time.

He continued: “I sat in his box in 2010 and 2011, successive years where he had match points at the US Open and lost both matches to Novak and… I felt terrible for him, but it was hard for me to even comprehend it and I remember talking to him afterwards and he was in a great mood – this was a couple of hours later and he was playing with his kids.

“I asked him about it and he said ‘Yes, it is really crushing, but I can also give you 10 matches that I had no right winning that I won. At the end of the day this is high-profile as it is a semi-final, but I can also list all the other ones where I had no chance’.

“Sure enough the next year at Wimbledon when he won in 2012, he really – in my opinion – should not have won that tournament. At the beginning of the tournament his back went out and he really struggled and one of the matches he ended up winning in five sets – I believe against Julien Benneteau of France – and he could hardly walk.

“He got through that match and got gradually better, but he wasn’t able to practice that much and during that time he didn’t sweat it.”