French Open finalist Stan Wawrinka will bring on Paul Annacone to his coaching team led by Magnus Norman to help him during the grass court season.
“I would like to take this opportunity to announce that I have added Paul Annacone to our existing coaching staff to help during the grass-court season over the next four weeks,” Wawrinka said before his loss to Rafael Nadal in the Roland Garros final.
Paul Annacone is not new to the coaching scene. He is himself a former World No. 12 and has worked with Pete Sampras from 1995 to 2011, then again in 2002 and Federer in 2010 and 2011. He will start working with Wawrinka at the Aegon Championships, at The Queen’s Club in London, which begins on 19th June, and then Wimbledon, which starts on July 3rd.
Wawrinka’s best result at Wimbledon, is quarter-final runs in 2014 and 2015 and it’s the only major title he has yet to win. In his only grass-court final, the Swiss was a runner-up to Nicolas Mahut in the 2013 ‘s-Hertogenbosch final.
“I want to progress, to make strides. I’m very happy with my team, with Magnus [Norman], with Pierre [Paganini], Yannick [Fattebert] – all the people who are around me. But we had some discussions in order to get a new vision, to get another view of my game. So that’s why we have decided to turn to Paul who has a lot of experience, and I hope that I will be in the right direction.”
Let’s wish Wawrinka good luck in the grass court season. It is quite a transition from the slow clay and his big swings will need to be shortened to handle the pace of the grass. I personally think it might be difficult for him and his game to ever win Wimbledon, but when he’s on he can play great tennis and let’s hope he can do that this year.
What do you think of Stan Wawrinka’s chances during the grass court season and Wimbledon? Can Paul Annacone be the missing link to solve the riddle of playing on grass? Please comment below!
