I’m going to make this short and sweet.  And I’d love to hear your opinion.

I watched Federer on the Tennis Channel go down yesterday at the Rogers Cup in Toronto.

I can only imagine how emotionally down Fed must still be after his loss to Rafa at Wimbledon.

But yesterday’s performance was pathetic, especially at the end of the 3rd set.

I believe Roger has only one chance to get back on track and win another Slam or two.

It’s time for PS…

Fed needs a specific style of coach, someone who understands exactly what the tools are the Roger has that no one out there on the tour has right now.

Pete Sampras…

How ironic would that be?  Fed is chasing Pete’s record, and I believe the only guy who can help him get there is Pete himself.

Pete understood the value of court position pressure.  Don’t give me this crap that because the rackets and string technology is so wildly different today that Pete and his style of play couldn’t have dominated in today’s game.

No one out there on the tour right now is doing what Pete did.  Serve and volley, chip and charge behind 2nd serve returns, and always looking for a short ball in a rally to approach on.

And one of the main reasons that no one is doing that now is because they’re not taught as kids and coached to do so anymore.

Very few of the guys on the tour can hit a decent volley.  And it’s less about the quality of the stroke itself and much more about the quantity of how often does a player put themselves in a court position that says to their opponent, “go ahead and try to pass me again”.

Roger knows how to do what Pete did.  He used to be an extremely gifted serve and volley player.

He’s just got himself away from it for such a long time that his confidence to get passed a few times and to have to scrape his knuckles now and then and basically get into the guy’s face is in need of a strong dose of Pete’s help.

My vote is for Fed to contact Pete and beg the guy to help him.   Fed would have to suck up his pride and lose a few matches as he regained that mojo as a big time serve and volley, chip and charge guy.

Do you see how every approach shot Fed hits these days is topped and sits up all pretty like on a platter for the boys to just tee off on?

If you just happen to know Fed or Pete, please, let ‘em both know that Fed is in dire need of Pete’s help.

Guess the next question would be if Pete really wants someone to break his Slam record.

Oh well, I think Fed is done unless he gets some serious help from someone like Pete.

Your thoughts…?

Brent