2003 Wimbledon men's singles champion Roger Federer of Switzerland poses with the trophy with his coach Peter Lundgren. (Getty Images)
Peter Lundgren helped Roger Federer win his maiden Grand Slam title
Peter Lundgren, the former coach of Roger Federer highlighted the problems the Swiss maestro faced as a youngster.
Lundgren was one of Federer’s earliest coaches, who helped him grab his first-ever Grand Slam title at the 2003 Wimbledon Championship.
According to Lundgren, Federer was a talented youngster but it took the latter a lot of effort to reach the heights that he has attained now.
“Working with a tennis player is not easy, but at that time Roger Federer was a talented but somewhat lazy young man. He had trouble concentrating and was not physically ready,” read Lundgren’s statements as collected by the Tennis Brazil portal.
“Still he always wanted to be the best and I realized that he had potential. He was a person that I had a hard time working with at first but he has a big heart, he’s a great guy and he’s continued to grow into a tennis ambassador. I’m proud of him.”
Lundgren also recollected his memories of winning his first Grand Slam title as a coach alongside Federer at the 2003 Wimbledon Championships. However, he wished that Peter Carter was still alive to see it happen.
Carter was Federer’s first coach with whom Lundgren worked alongside to help the Swiss emerge as one of the top players during his younger days.
Australian Crater was one of the most influential coaches in Federer’s career Carter. However, he died in a car accident on 1 August 2002 before Federer had won his maiden Grand Slam title.
Lundgren also went down the memory lane, recollecting his time with former World No.1 and Russian star Marat Safin.
The Swede played a key role in helping Safin win the 2005 Australian Open championship and worked with him until August 2006 before taking over the coaching duties of the British Davis Cup team.
“In 2004, when we met, he was very negative with his game and he was not well physically and mentally either. At the 1,000th Rome Masters, I asked him why he had not trained enough and why he paid me to train him. He told me that he was ill and did not want to play tennis,” Lundgren recollected.
However, Lundgren had answers to Safin’s woes as the coach-player duo went on to win the Masters 1,000 in Paris and Madrid, and finished the year as world number 4.
In 2005, Safin won the Australian Open after defeating Federer in the semi-finals.
Follow our dedicated Tennis page for instant Tennis news and updates
