Federer Hires Sampras' Last Coach Paul Annacone

Roger Federer, current World #3 (now 110 points behind World #2 Novak Djokovic), has hired Paul Annacone to be his new coach, indicating that he is interested in maximizing his effectiveness in the twilight of his record-breaking career. The 15-time major champion has lost in the quarterfinals of the last two Grand Slam tournaments, and those were the two Grand Slams that he won last year. Instead, his arch-nemesis Rafael Nadal, now World #1, won them instead.

Greg Couch at Tennis Fanhouse commented on the move, saying:

Federer is about to turn 29, and while I think his game and his style are starting to look obsolete, I don't agree with some critics who think he has lost something because of his age. A little passion, a little edge, a little speed.

No. He still has everything he had before. But the game is changing, players are trying to figure out how to catch him, and he's just standing there, not fighting back. He has thought his elegant and perfect strokes will still be good enough, no matter that the era is changing around him.

But now, maybe this is Federer's way of saying that he's not ready to fade away.

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Annacone is a good choice. Sampras used to rave about how well he scouted opponents, figured out what was necessary. That means gameplans, not excuses. Federer seemed to think that all that's necessary is for him to just be him.

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Federer is going to have to attack back. And I think he's going to have to commit to the new technology, probably even change his outdated racket. He's using almost exactly the same one Sampras used a couple eras ago.

Federer won't allow Annacone, who's 47, to re-tool entirely. We'll see how far they go. But just agreeing to listen to Annacone, even if just for a test period, is a real start.

It's pretty exciting really: Mr. Perfect wants to get better.

I agree that for Federer fas for myself this is a good sign that the GOAT recognizes that he needs to make a change, especially if he wants to extend his major singles titles lead, or catch the all-time weeks at #1 lead, where he is exactly one week behind Pete Sampras.