It was the year in which Roger Federer refused to fade away,when he won another Wimbledon and returned for a long, reaffirming stretch toNo.1. And he celebrated his 31st birthday.
The constant in Federer’s ability to endure in style hasbeen Pierre Paganini, his 54-year-old Swiss fitness coach, a former track andfield athlete and soccer player who never played tennis at a high level.
He met Federer in 1994 when Federer was aprodigy-in-training at the Swiss national training center. Excerpts from aninterview with Paganini:
Q: What has Roger had to do differently to succeed at hisage?
A: You don’t have the same goals when a player is 19 or 31.When you work with a 19-year-old, you work long term, thinking about today butthinking about goals for the whole career arc. The more you get older, the moreeach season and the moment itself become important. Roger has an incrediblecapacity to still progress. That’s why he’s still on top: mentally he’s verystrong and can adapt to the physical side, too.
For Roger, you have to be good to find exercises that givehim trouble. He’s so coordinated. In 2000, when we started working full-timeagain, I proposed a complex thing and sensed while he was doing it that it wasmore and more perfect.
Q: Why has he endured where others have not? He’s hadongoing back problems, but no major injury.
A: I think it’s that his life is all related to tennis, buthe also knows how to take a step back from it, which is really important. Heknows recovery is an important part of the process, so for him it’s natural torecover after a series of tournaments and then he’s even more motivated tostart training again. What I find interesting is that he is just as motivatednow as he was as a junior.
Q: Does Roger need to work as much physically as Nadal orDjokovic?
A: It’s not because his physicality is less in the forefronton the court that he doesn’t need to work at it. Roger varies play a greatdeal. So if you vary a lot it means you also have to have footwork that is morevaried. That means you have to train to adapt to his type of game. It’s whyit’s impossible to use one method with all the players. Federer is a differentplayer than Nadal and Djokovic, but all three are champions.
Take someone who speaks English and French well and takesomeone else who speaks English, Russian, Japanese, Spanish and Chinese. Roger,for me, is the second one. He speaks lots of languages on the court with hiscreativity, but he also speaks lots of languages with his speed andcoordination and his physique because he is obliged to do it because he is acreative player. What is more difficult? To speak seven languages or two? Seven, which proves that when you have lotsof talent you have to work a lot, and that’s what Roger does.
