Even Federer is finally using a coach

Roger Federer may not have to reinvent the wheel. But in hiring Pete Sampras' former coach, Long Islander Paul Annacone, in the weeks leading up to the year's final Grand Slam tournament, Federer clearly is trying to get his game to circle back to where it was.

Though he has enjoyed unparalleled success while going long stretches without employing a coach - a record 16 major tournament titles being the most obvious - Federer now is responding to his lowest ranking in seven years (No. 3) by using the sport's standard maximize/optimize/supersize strategy. All players, from top to bottom in the rankings, change coaches, many fairly often, in their constant search for some little instructional or inspirational edge.

"I've had a few, though not an abnormal amount," said Mardy Fish, the 28-year-old Florida-based pro who has spent the last six years trying to return to his career-high No. 17 ranking. "This is my 11th year; I've had four or five coaches. Some have helped and some have not helped. Right now, Sam [Querrey, the No. 20 player from Southern California] is letting me share his coach, David Nainkin."

Within days of Federer's announcement that he had negotiated a temporary arrangement with Annacone - they are expected to begin working together at the Toronto tournament this week - Britain's Andy Murray, ranked fourth in the world but impatient for that first, long-anticipated major title, also made a coaching move, parting with Miles Maclagan after 21/2 years to work solely with Alex Corretja.

Earlier in the year, No. 2 Novak Djokovic of Serbia ended a year's association with Todd Martin while keeping Slovak native Marian Vajda on board. Those high-profile deals followed the dramatic improvement of Sweden's Robin Soderling, who hadn't gotten past the third round in 19 career majors before hiring Magnus Norman in late 2008. Since then, Soderling twice has been French Open runner-up, upsetting Rafael Nadal in Paris in '09 and Federer this year.

"It's been, in my experience, different reasons at different times" for changing coaches, said top-ranked American Andy Roddick, who has had his quota of boldface tennis names managing his game, among them Brad Gilbert, Jimmy Connors and, currently, Larry Stefanki.

Gilbert had a reputation for putting his crafty tennis brain into athletic bodies of such players as Andre Agassi. Connors never had coached before joining Roddick, but brought his passion and aggression into the partnership. Stefanki had worked with a string of stars, including John McEnroe, England's Tim Henman and former Chilean No. 1 Marcelo Rios.

"There are times," Roddick said, "when [the choice of a coach] is more of an off-court thing. You have to enjoy the process. With Jimmy, I felt I needed a spark; I was in a little bit of a dull spot. Larry, I was looking for a combination of those things. He'd worked with big personalities before, different styles of game, righthanders and lefthanders. So it's different at different times of your career."

Cyprus' Marcos Baghdatis, who reached No. 8 in the world four years ago but presently is scrambling to stay in the top 25, has cycled through a number of coaches - three in 2008 alone - before returning, last month, to his first, Guillaume Peyre.

"We had some unfinished business to do together; we had a hard time stopping together," Baghdatis said. "When I was in academy, it was hardly my choice, so it was tough breaking up with him. I think he knows my game. I think he knows me better than anybody out there and I think he can help me a lot."

Players cite the expected reasons for these coaching carousels: the elementary need for freshness. Tactical suggestions. A motivational kick. A psychological nudge. In the end, though, coaches don't appear to have the missing clue in the mystery of on-court dominance so much as they provide a meeting of the minds, thereby freeing the player to be his best.

Stefanki said that when Roddick called him with the coaching offer last year, the first thing Stefanki told him was, "I'm not a genie. It's not like I'm the Shell Answer Man and suddenly everything is perfect." One of Stefanki's initial suggestions simply was that Roddick lose weight to improve his movement and endurance.

Communication, of course, it critical. And for that reason, despite the sport's thoroughly international culture, players routinely seek out fellow countrymen at some point in their careers. "It's important," Fish said of the coach-player relationship, "to have somebody who understands your style and understands you as a person. There's a lot of down time on the tour, so being friends is up there as well."

There is this, too, in Federer's case: For him to hire a man of Annacone's reputation, after spending most of his career coachless, could have an impact on Federer's competitors. The move surely demonstrates to everyone on the tour that Federer does not intend to go gentle into that good night, raging instead against any dimming light of his skills.