The legendary Paul Annacone, former coach of Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, talked about the differences between the young Spaniard’s grass-court tennis compared to that of his rival Jannik Sinner, in an official interview for ATP.
“As far as I’m concerned, even though the game on grass has evolved, the most effective players on this surface are those who are good with the first shot. Sinner made a big improvement on his second serve. The accuracy and speed of his first serve have increased. When you look at those two things and his ability to respond aggressively, I think they’re going to be critical to his success on grass. I believe everyone needs to find their own way on different surfaces.
The best players don’t think, ‘Oh, I’ll play on grass,’ but, ‘Now I’ll change my game to make things work.’ Even though Sinner moves much, much better now, he’s a tall guy. I think this is one of the disadvantages compared to a tennis player who moves like Carlos Alcaraz. He will probably move in a more balanced way than Sinner will on the grass. If I consider Sinner’s improvements, those on serve in particular, I think this is a huge advantage. As well as his formidable response,” he told.
Analyzing the continuous progress made by Jannik Sinner in his game – especially on serve – the expectations ahead of the grass season are very high. The Italian reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year, losing only to Novak Djokovic. Sinner will play his first Slam as number 1 in the ATP ranking on the lawns of the All England Club, where he will repeat the long-distance duel with Carlos Alcaraz, defending champion at the Championships
A few days ago “The Last Twelve Days of Federer” came out, the documentary aired on Prime Video that tells the last 12 days of the legendary career of Roger Federer. The Swiss champion, explaining the reasons that led him to document to the general public the last moments of competitive activity, confessed how difficult it was, and how it is still today, to realize that it is all over: “My career is over, but deep down, I probably still have a little machinery in development, because I’ve been doing this for so long… You try every day to be the best player you can be, and all of a sudden, you pull the plug and change everything!
But it remains a standby mode, and talking about it brings me back to this situation, which is beautiful. It’s strange, it’s very touching to see what I mean to the fans. Maybe some people met at a tournament, got married and had a son named Roger.
I have many little anecdotes on the subject. As a fan who asks me to never stop playing and, today, is what I would like with Nadal, Djokovic and Murray. I want them to play forever, but of course it ends,” he said in an interview with Le Figaro.
Roger Federer is still very much loved
Today Roger Federer lives a life like any other parent: “I never thought I would accomplish all this and I told myself I had to enjoy it. I didn’t want to enter a loop of “hey, another Slam title, or another week from the world’s number 1…”.
And the same when I announced my retirement. I sent a quick message online and then, bam, I’m done: I take my boys to soccer and I go home to do homework with my girls,” he revealed.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion shared a recent interview with the Spanish media “El País”, where he left more details of how he lived his goodbye to the professional circuit of the ATP.
“It feels like you’re at some sort of funeral of your own life. It’s a very strange feeling, to be honest. You are completely alert and live a great blur in slow motion of everything that is happening.”
