T.M.: Is it true that when he was a kid, you made your nephew believe that you had magical powers?
Toni: Yes (smiles). Rafa was the little boy in the family and everybody always had so much fun with him. As a joke, I made him believe all sorts of things: that I was a star at AC Milan, that I had won the Tour de France five times with a moped (laughs)
Indeed, I also told him that I had magical powers. One day, he must have been about 7 or 8, we lacked a player in the 12-year group to compete in a team event. I took him along with us and to reassure him, I told him that he didn’t need to worry if the match went badly because I have the ability to make it rain. It was winter. So, when the match got tight at the start, it started to rain and then, Rafa turned to me and said: “It’s alright, you can make it stop now, I’m going to win!”
Another time, we were watching a match of Ivan Lendl on tv. It was a replay of an older match during which Lendl retired. Rafa didn’t know that. So, at the exact moment when Lendl retired, I told him: “Alright, I’m going to make Lendl lose.” He couldn’t believe his eyes. I have a lot of examples like that.
From Tennis Magazine (France), No. 413, October 2010
Kind of like giving whisky and car keys to a teenager isn’t it?
How exactly is John McEnroe going to help Roger Federer improve his game?
“Rog – you gotta work the umpire, man!
C’moooonn, the ball was ooouut!
You can not be serious!
Yeah, smash the racket, smash the racket. Feel better?
John McEnroe - Roger Federer's new coach?
Violation? fahgettaboudit….”
Makes you wonder about the wisdom of the international press when they grab a throwaway line from a washed out loud mouth like McEnroe and suddenly the talk is that he will become Federer’s new coach.
Seriously? Sure, we all agree that Federer could need some help right now. There is that ailing right hand drive that seems to have a death wish for the net, the one handed reverse that has all the precision these days of a North Korean guided missile.
But even if wooden-racquet era John might have a few hints on fine tuning some technical elements of his game, surely it is that hardest place of all that Roger needs help on right now – that space between his two ears. And to do that he needs assistance from a good performance coach.
And finding the right man will be tough. He must be someone that Federer respects, and who is worthy of that respect. Someone with moral authority, poise and seasoned wisdom.
In-your-face Mac is not that man. He would be American chalk to Fed’s Swiss cheese, and although Roger would do well to pick up on some of McEnroe’s feisty determination and spirit, Roger just won’t, I humbly believe, say three Hail Mary’s for a guy who has sinned in just the ways Fed doesn’t want to go right now.
No, Roger won’t go for this “offer”. And those 125,000 fans who have already watched Federer’s racquet smashing heroics won’t get to see a whole library of Fed and Mac line-calling, abuse-hurling, umpire-bashing specials after all.
10. Rafa has a coach. A real one, not a maybe-sort-of-trying-out-and-in-the-end-”no”-kind-of-one
9. Rafa could play right handed and still beat Roger, because, well, he is really right handed.
8. When Rafa was four, Uncle Toni taught him not to cry when he loses. A few years later he taught him not to lose.
7. Roger does not fix his undies before points, or line up his water bottles between ends. He has therefore earned the wrath of the tennis Gods and condemned himself to eternal bad luck.
6. Indian Wells is the tournament most won by the reigning number one since the Masters Series category started. Rafa number one, has got Roger’s number won.
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