Paul Annacone, who climbed as high as No. 12 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, has worked with a wide variety of players during his coaching career, from former World No. 1s Pete Sampras and Roger Federer to British legend Tim Henman, rising American Taylor Fritz and WTA star Sloane Stephens. With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting members of the ATP Coach Programme whose ability to work has been impacted by the virus, Annacone is giving back.

The American is one of 10 legendary coaches offering an exclusive fan experience in a special auction, which will benefit coaches in need and a global COVID-19 relief fund. Stan Wawrinka’s coach, Daniel Vallverdu, approached Annacone with the idea. Other coaches involved include former World No. 1s Boris Becker, Ivan Lendl and Carlos Moya.

Learn More About VIP Tennis Experiences

“Dani just told me what he was trying to do, which was great, and really a very worthwhile cause,” Annacone said. “We’re just trying to help out a lot of the coaches who haven’t had any work, who are just kind of setting out [on their career]. I said, ‘Sure, that’s great.’”

The experience Annacone is offering will be at the 2021 BNP Paribas Open. The winning bidder and a guest will enjoy a two-hour lesson with Annacone. They will also get two premium tickets for both the men’s and women’s singles finals, as well as exclusive access to VIP hospitality at the tournament.

Annacone is more than happy to contribute to help his colleagues.

“We’re all in kind of our own brotherhood and sisterhood, being people who guide young players toward their career goals. We’re all in the same boat together,” Annacone said. “I think it’s important to try to appreciate your own situation and help the others who aren’t in a situation as good as you when you can, because we’re all trying to do the same thing. These are my peers and a lot of them I know very well. They’re a terrific group of people, so it’ll be good to be able to help, at least a little bit.”

Learn More About Annacone’s Auction

The highest bid for Annacone’s package so far is $5,000. The deadline is 29 June, and he hopes to raise as much money as possible to support those in need.

“I think people forget it’s an individual sport, but those individuals need coaches. There are a lot of individual coaches who are out there who are independent contractors that have been really struggling. A lot of them are family men and women who are trying to take care of their families and they haven’t been able to do it,” Annacone said. “It’s really important to be able to help our family members out; our family being our tennis community family, and this is one way where we can participate.”

Did You Know?
Fans can also enter one of several prize draws to support this cause. Prizes up for grabs include tickets to the 2021 Nitto ATP Finals and autographed racquets from Stan Wawrinka, Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov. Learn More

It’s not often that Grand Slam champions meet in the first round of a tournament. But that’s what happened at the 2018 Nature Valley International, where former World No. 1 Andy Murray faced three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka.

Murray was competing in the second tournament of his comeback from hip surgery, which forced him to miss 11 months. Wawrinka, then World No. 225, was battling back from a left knee injury that caused him to miss the second half of 2017.

“I looked at someone like a [Juan Martin] Del Potro, who has come back from multiple injuries and some of the draws you get are really difficult,” Murray said. “You have to just try to accept it, try and deal with it as best as you can and hopefully start winning some of those matches soon.”

Murray emerged victorious, defeating the Swiss 6-1, 6-3 in 78 minutes for his first victory since 2017 Wimbledon.

“Very happy to get the win,” Murray said. “Obviously when you’ve not played for the best part of a year, closing out the match against someone like Stan, who I’ve had lots of great matches with — tough, tough guy to play against — was tough. But delighted to get the win.”

Murray lost in the second round against countryman Kyle Edmund.

Editor’s Note: Ten years ago, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut completed the longest match in history in the first round at Wimbledon. As the players remember their battle on social media, ATPTour.com resurfaces its match report from the match’s final day on 24 June 2010.

It lasted over three days, broke a host of tennis record and finally ended with 25-year-old American John Isner hitting a backhand – his 246th winner – down the line to pass Nicolas Mahut of France.

Picking up at 59-59 in the fifth set on its third day, the first-round match on Court 18 at The Championships, which has captivated a global audience, continued on serve with no break point opportunities until 6’10” Isner fell on his back having kept his nerve to complete the longest tennis match on record for a 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7), 7-6(3), 70-68 victory in 11 hours and five minutes.

Both men firmly have their feet in tennis history.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Exactly 10 years ago, @nicomahut and I got locked in a match that seemingly lasted 10 years. It’s something that I get asked countless times about even to this day, and truthfully don’t enjoy rehashing what we both went through. What started as your standard first round match at a grand slam morphed into a spectacle that even stole headlines from the concurrent World Cup. While technically imperfect in a lot of ways, Nico and I showed the value of never ever giving up while competing during the course of the 3 day event. Prior to the match, I couldn’t tell you one thing about Nico other than I knew he was really good at serve and volleying. Afterwards, I learned that on top of his incredible competitive spirit, Nico is one of the most genuine and kind people I’ve ever come across. I mean that with the utmost sincerity. You won’t find a better guy. The most important take away from this match for me is the inseparable friendship we have formed. We will always be spoken about in the same breath going forward which I find to be very cool. It’s a shame we can’t be at SW19 this year to commemorate our match, but maybe one day we can lock horns on the same side of net in doubles…perhaps say at @wimbledon. What do you say @nicomahut? PS special shoutout to our referee, Mohammed, who never took a bathroom break for 11 hours and 5 minutes.

A post shared by John Isner (@johnrisner) on Jun 23, 2020 at 2:17pm PDT

In an Instagram post commemorating the 10-year-anniversary of the match, Isner wrote: “It’s something that I get asked countless times about even to this day, and truthfully don’t enjoy rehashing what we both went through. What started as your standard first-round match at a Grand Slam morphed into a spectacle that even stole headlines from the concurrent World Cup.

“Afterwards, I learned that on top of his incredible competitive spirit, Nico is one of the most genuine and kind people I’ve ever come across.”

Happy birthday my friend… We should definitely take the time together to look back at this amazing story. #10yearsalready ???@JohnIsner pic.twitter.com/OaxSArvF5k

— Nico Mahut (@nmahut) June 22, 2020

There were three service breaks in 183 games, totalling 980 points. There were 168 consecutive service games held between both players until Isner broke in the 183rd and final game of the match. The previous break of serve had been in the second game of the second set when Isner was broken at 0-1.

The fifth set alone lasted eight hours and 11 minutes – longer than any the previous longest-match in tennis history, when Fabrice Santoro beat his French compatriot Arnaud Clement over six hours and 33 minutes in a first-round match at 2004 Roland Garros.

Isner hit 113 aces to 103 for Mahut, there were 490 winners overall – including 244 for Mahut, who picks up a cheque for £11,250. On Wednesday, Isner had missed four match points in the fifth set – one at 10-9, two at 33-32 and one at 59-58.

Upon the completion of the historic match, the All England Club presented the two players and Mohamed Lahyani, a Swedish umpire, with awards on the court to mark their achievement.

In an on-court interview, No. 23 seed Isner said, of his vanquished opponent: “The guy’s an absolute warrior. It stinks someone had to lose. To share this with him was an absolute honour. Maybe we’ll meet again somewhere down the road and it won’t be 70-68.”

Mahut was gracious in defeat, admitting “at this moment I’m just really thankful. It was amazing today.

“John deserved to win. He served unbelievable, he’s a champion. It was really an honour to play the greatest match ever at the greatest place for tennis. It was very long but I think we both enjoyed it.”

Ironically, Isner and Mahut drew one another in the first round in 2011, too. Isner won 7-6(4), 6-2, 7-6(6).

I’m 35 years old, and I have won 14 ATP Tour titles and reached World No. 6. For a long time, the biggest problem my generation faced was that the top four players — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray — were too good.

For someone like me who was in the middle of these guys’ careers, it was a nightmare.

It was a chance to play with the best players and to compete against them. Every win I earned against them was a huge performance in itself, having a chance to test yourself against guys who are some of the best players ever. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic might be the three best players of all-time at one point. I’m lucky that I’ve been part of it.

But the problem is when you’re a tennis player, you want to win. You want to win big tournaments. However, with Rafa competing, for example, it’s complicated to win Roland Garros.

We had Juan Martin del Potro, who has won one Grand Slam. I’m pretty sure in another generation and without injuries, Del Potro could have won four, five or six Slams. With them around, he earned one and only captured one ATP Masters 1000. What’s amazing is he needed to save three championship points in the 2019 Indian Wells final to do it. Do you realise how good that guy is?

Simon’s ATP Head2Head Record vs. The Big Four

I feel like we need young players to play great tennis. Tennis was suffering for too long, as the new generations have not been good enough to beat the Big Four. It’s not saying anything bad about guys like Milos Raonic or Kei Nishikori or anyone from their generation, because those guys are super good. It just shows how good Roger, Rafa, Novak and Andy were.

Even being 20 years older than some of the new players, they still beat them because they are just martians. It’s crazy to be that good for that long every single tournament, every single week.

At first, I was kind of happy that the new players were not able to beat them, because I’ve had that feeling my whole career. Of course we want to win a Grand Slam. Maybe it sounds like an excuse, but with these guys it was impossible.

However, because the Big Four are getting older, they have to play a bit less, so there is a bit more of an opening. It’s great to see new players starting to come through.

Now I’m happy if the young guys can finally beat them. We need that for the sport. I think this new generation of players, many of whom are under 23 years old, they play super good. They will lead the sport in the future and I’m really happy to see that.

I think especially this most recent generation of players is really attractive. There are players with many different styles, and different personalities, too. You take guys like Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime, then you have the young American guys who are a very good generation of players. Stefanos Tsitsipas can have an amazing game, Sascha Zverev too.

I feel it’s a great generation in terms of personality. Guys like Felix, Karen Khachanov, Daniil Medvedev. They are not just good players, but they are super nice guys and very good people. That’s going to help them. They are bringing a lot of variety to the court.

We need that because Novak, Rafa and Roger were leading the sport forever. At some point, they’re going to stop.

It’s quite difficult for coaches to simulate pressure on the practice court for their players.

The following drill goes a long way to achieving just that, zeroing in on the “crunch time” moments that matter most to the end result.

• Start your service game down break point at 30/40
• Similarly, begin your return game at 30/40 where you have the opportunity to break on the very first point
• Play a tie-break at six games all if you get there
• Make the match a one-set shootout, mirroring the pressure of a third set

What should you call this drill? How about “Rafa’s Under Pressure Drill”, as Rafael Nadal was the leading player in 2019 on the Infosys Under Pressure LEADERBOARD with a 253.1 rating. The index features the following four metrics, which are all included in the drill above:

1. Break Points Converted
2. Break Points Saved
3. Tie-Breaks Won
4. Deciding Sets Won

What’s interesting is that Nadal didn’t finish first in any of the four categories in 2019. However, once accumulated into one index, his overall performance in pressure situations rose to the top.

2019 Under Pressure LEADERBOARD

Nadal finished second in the index in 2018 to Kei Nishikori and was 10th best in 2017 when Federer finished first. The only other year he led the Under Pressure list was in 2010 with a 252.0 rating.

Break Points Converted
Nadal went 53-7 at ATP Tour and Grand Slam events in 2019 and won 45.0 per cent (250/556) of break point opportunities. The three tournaments where he impressively converted more break points than he lost were:

Break Points Saved
Nadal impressively saved 68.4 per cent (158/231) of break points last season at ATP Tour and Grand Slam events, with the following three events being the most impressive.

Tie-Breaks Won
Nadal is placed 12th best overall in his career with tie-breaks won at 60.8 per cent (243/400). He was at an almost identical mark in 2019, winning 60.9 per cent of tie-breaks, which placed him in 15th position on the ATP Tour last season.

Deciding Sets Won
Nadal has won 68.9 per cent of deciding sets in his career, which is the third-best success rate on the ATP Tour. That elevated to 75.0 per cent in 2019, which was also third-best last season.

As coaches worldwide know all too well, any chance to simulate the pressure of a match in practice is welcome. These four specific areas all coming together into one pressure-packed practice drill provide a unique insight into how Nadal thrives in the crucible moments of matches that have defined his career.