No one knows Roger Federer's game better than his wife Mirka: Paul Annacone
Roger Federer’s former coach - Paul Annacone - recently provided some rare insights into his initial days as the Swiss’ coach. Speaking on the podcast 'Tennis with an Accent', the American revealed the role of Federer's wife Mirka during that period and asserted that nobody is as well-versed with Roger Federer’s game as she is.
"With Roger I got to spend a few weeks with him early on to get to know each other, to see if it would work," Annacone said. "And to get to know Severin. I knew him and Mirka not on a professional level but friendly acquaintances on the tour. First few nights we went out to dinner with Mirka and Roger to talk tennis, to talk philosophy. And thank goodness Mirka was there! I mean no one knows his game better than her and she played so she gets it."
Mirka Federer is a former player herself, who represented Switzerland in the Olympics and also boasted of a career-high singles ranking of No. 76. On the ITF tour Mirka was ranked as high as No. 3, and during her early days she even drew attention from Martina Navratilova. However, a recurring injury led to a premature end of her tennis career.
Annacone also went into detail about how he weaved his way into working alongside the rest of 'Team Federer', which comprises of Severin Luthi (coach), Pierre Paganini (strength and conditioning coach), Tony Godsick (agent) in addition to Mirka.
The American revealed he would often discuss his inputs with not only Roger Federer and his other coaches, but also with Mirka.
“I would spend a long time with Severin, trying to learn the ins and outs of the basically whole ‘Team Federer’ and how things worked out," Annacone continued. "Tony Godsick his agent was really tremendous in helping me understand and helping the learning curve go quickly. Pierre Paganini was and still is his strength and conditioning guy. It was really about absorbing all information about how things worked and making mental notes about how I could add value. And discussing those notes with whoever I needed to, whether with Mirka alone or Roger alone or Severin or Pierre.”
Roger Federer always wanted to hear new ideas: Paul Annacone
Paul Annacone was asked if Roger Federer or any of his other team members ever blocked his suggestions and ideas. The American admitted that such occurrences did occur at times, but also recalled how Roger Federer was always open to new ideas.
“It (blocking of ideas) does happen but what I was so amazed about Roger and Pete was they want to hear you to be able to push back in a constructive way,” Annacone said. “Roger always wanted to hear new ideas. Roger - in one of our first practice sessions - said to me, ‘Okay what do you wanna do?' I said is it that simple that I better tell you what to do? He said I might question you so you better have some good backup about your reasons but yeah tell me what you wanna do and then I might question you. So from Day 1 it was always all about a really nice communication.”