Roger Federer was hard and self-critical as a teenager, says fitness coach

• Tennis News
• Roger Federer

Roger Federer's fitness coach Pierre Paganini commented on how the Swiss player improved mentally. Paganini started working with the Swiss back in 1994 when Roger was just 13 years old. "You could see his talent but the coaches had to push him quite a lot, he was testing the limits.

He was very young, he was the youngest of all the players we had at the time. There were still a lot of moments where he had difficulties concentrating. He had so much in him already, but he could not express everything yet. He quickly realized that working on his physical fitness would help him to do what he was enjoying the most, playing.

And to express even better what he can do so well, which is being creative. He went through times when he was very, very hard on himself. He is a very self-critical. It's difficult for an artist when he was the desire to express himself, and he knows how to express himself, but he can't actually express himself the way he wants to.

And that's why at the beginning of his career it may have taken a while, because there were so many things to put together in the puzzle. One has to find his harmony, that's why it's crucial for Roger that the man he is, embodies the player he is.

That those two things are one and the same thing. He has always been himself and I think that this has been his great mental labor his entire life. I noticed that already when he was young, he always tried to find a balance between what he does and what he is."