Series Part 3: Legendary Coaches - Paul Annacone
Anyone who has worked as a coach with players like Pete Sampras , Tim Henman and Roger Federer for a long time can't be that bad. We dedicate part three of our series about legendary coaches in tennis to the American Paul Annacone .
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit:
Mar 12, 2023, 04:33 pm
The most obvious difference to the coaches Lennart Bergelin and Bob Brett presented so far in our "Legendary Coaches" series is that Paul Annacone is still among the living. What initially seems a bit cynical, but also shows how early the American successfully entered the coaching business, because for the man from the state of New York the transition from an active tennis career to a coaching job was fluid.
In Austria, or rather in Vienna, Annacone has even set the biggest mark as a player, after all, he won the traditional indoor tournament in the Wiener Stadthalle in 1989. While the Australian Kelly Evernden said goodbye to the second seed Thomas Muster in the semi-finals, the North American won in the semi-finals a two-set win over a Czech named Petr Korda, who was still a qualifier at the time and who was to have a great career ahead of him.
Seven Years "Pistol Pete"
In the final in the beautiful 15th district of Vienna, three winning sets were played back then, and Evernden and Annacone fully exhausted the scope. For the then 26-year-old American, the 6: 7, 6: 4, 6: 1, 2: 6 and 6: 3 was the third and last final success of his quite successful playing career - at the peak of his career in March 1986 he held the World ranking position twelve in singles, in doubles it even went up to third place.
As his days as a top athlete drew to a close, Annacone met Pete Sampras, who was already number one. He had just lost Tim Gullikson as his coach - the tragic circumstances would be worth a separate episode in our series - and was looking for a stable partner. Annacone proved to be such, guiding "Pistol Pete" to excellence for seven years. In addition to eight Grand Slam successes (four of them in Wimbledon), three victories at the ATP Tour World Championships (today ATP Finals) and a triumph at the Grand Slam Cup, which no longer exists, also fell into the era of their cooperation.
Currently on the road with Taylor Fritz
From 2003 to 2007, the Briton Tim Henman benefited from Annacone's expertise and between 2010 and 2013 he was at the side of none other than Roger Federer with advice and action. Together, the Swiss-US American duo won two Grand Slam tournaments (2010 Australian Open, 2012 Wimbledon) and twice the ATP World Tour Finals (2010, 2011). After leaving the Shanghai Masters in 2013, the collaboration ended.
After two brief interludes with Sloane Stephens and Stan Wawrinka, US boy Talyor Fritz entered into a collaboration with his experienced compatriot in 2017. Since then, Fritz has steadily improved in the ATP ranking and was finally able to climb into the top 10 of tennis men at the end of last season.
Paul Annacone is now 59 years old and also works for sports technology company PlaySight Interactive along with fellow coach Darren Cahill. He lives in Woodland Hills, California with his wife Elisabeth and has a son (Nicholas) and a daughter (Olivia).