Severin Lüthi - "I'm not only there for decoration"
Big tennis on Wednesday night at "Kasi Live" in our Instagram account "tennisnetnews": Severin Lüthi , Swiss Davis Cup captain and coach of Roger Federer , took a good half hour for Christopher Kas .
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Apr 30, 2020, 07:09 am
Severin Lüthi had his beard and hair in front. And after the Swiss man has got on well with Christopher Kas for years, hardly any topic has been left untouched. When asked about the four top juniors who are just growing up in Switzerland, Lüthi urged caution. Simply getting older will not be enough to be successful as an adult. After all, the juniors have already had their first experiences with Grand Master Roger Federer in early 2020 in Dubai. During the training, however, there would usually have been two juniors on one side and Federer on the other side of the network.
Lüthi himself also had ambitions to enter the tennis circus. At the age of 17 he was the best player in Switzerland, but then lost his professional career. Although he could stand up to a man like Gustavo Kuerten, who would later win the French Open three times. "At that age, I didn't exactly know what I wanted," said Lüthi. "As a boy you make mistakes too. And that's where I lost my way. In the end, nobody cares about the reasons - only the results count. Either you did it or you didn't."
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Lüthi brings a double coach
Roger Federer has been in contact since childhood. The five-year-old Lüthi never really lost sight of Federer and was also available as a sparring partner for the aspiring star. The relationship was really close over the Davis Cup, where Lüthi started as vice-captain. After Tony Roche said goodbye to Federer as coach, Severin Lüthi took on his role.
And in this role Lüthi is by no means resistant to advice. This became particularly clear before the Davis Cup final in Lille 2014 against France. Lüthi coach David McPherson had brought on board, who had prepared the doubles with Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka so well that Lüthi saw the best doubles in the Davis Cup. Against not bad French at all with Richard Gasquet and Julien Benneteau. He attributed this primarily to the influence of McPherson. "It's not about me tearing the show," says Lüthi, who also got tips from Christopher Kas.
His style as a coach, especially in the Davis Cup, has changed over the years. At first there would have been a lot of nervousness, after all, Federer was already at the top of the world rankings. But everyone would have developed - Wawrinka, Federer and himself. Severin Lüthi described his philosophy as follows: On the one hand, he did not want to overload the players in the Davis Cup with information when changing sides, but he does want to get his points across. "I'm not just there for decoration."
At the moment, Lüthi has a lot of contact with Roger Federer. The maestro is doing very well, he is still under construction. The first six weeks after knee surgery would have been perfect, the following two not quite optimal. But now everything is in order again. And Federer is one of those players who benefit from the forced break.