Roger Federer has all the shots in his artillery, and everything he does looks so easy on the eye. However it has taken him several years and several weird drills to perfect the techniques and style that he possesses today. ‘When I was 14, we had Sven Groenefeld as a coach for a little while’, said Roger Federer. ‘He used to put an extra rope over the net, over the regular tennis net, because we were making so many mistakes and the court was so quick‘, he added.

Sven Groenefeld is a highly reputed coach who has worked with the likes of Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Caroline Wozniacki and many others. He was recently in the news after he parted ways with Maria Sharapova. ‘So by hitting it higher, of course, the ball doesn’t skid through as much, and we had to play safer and it was very hard to hit winners’. ‘It was a good exercise’, continued Federer. ‘So we had to play with more spin, which actually now was a very good exercise because in winter times, you know, we would play on this lightning-quick surface where you couldn’t get any rhythm, you know, and like this, you would.’

Federer also spoke about the confidence and aura that he carries around with him, that automatically tilts the odds in his favor before the match even starts. He revelaed that against most players he knows that he is going to come up with the goods. ‘I’m very focused at this moment when I’m really playing well’, says the Swiss maestro. ‘Of course very confident, because you have the feeling on the important points, you’re always going to come out on top, you know. Just with that feeling inside of yourself, you actually become very relaxed but very focused. So it’s a combination of a few things, yeah’, Roger Federer reveals.