Paul Annacone (born March 20, 1963) is an American former touring professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

player and current tennis coach. He is the former coach of 20-time Grand Slam winner

Roger Federer Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-e ...

, 14-time Grand Slam winner

Pete Sampras Petros "Pete" Sampras ( el, Πέτρος Σάμπρας; born August 12, 1971) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. His professional career began in 1988 and ended at the 2002 US Open, which he won, defeating longtime rival Andre ...

, and 2017 US Open champion

Sloane Stephens Sloane Stephens (born March 20, 1993) is an American professional tennis player. She achieved a career-best ranking of world No. 3 after Wimbledon in 2018. Stephens was the 2017 US Open champion, and has won seven WTA Tour singles titles in to ...

. Annacone is currently a coach at ProTennisCoach.com, a commentator at

Tennis Channel Tennis Channel is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Sinclair Television Group subsidiary of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It is devoted to events and other programming related to the game o ...

, and works with

Taylor Fritz Taylor Harry Fritz (born October 28, 1997) is an American professional tennis player. He has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved on October 10, 2022, and a doubles ranking of ...

Career

Player

High school

As an eighth grader, Paul played first singles for

Shoreham-Wading River High School Shoreham-Wading River High School is a public secondary school located in Shoreham, New York. The school serves about 800 students in grades 9 to 12 in the Shoreham-Wading River Central School District. Overview The school colors are navy blue an ...

and was undefeated in league play. Annacone graduated from

East Hampton High School East Hampton High School is a high school in East Hampton (town), New York, East Hampton, Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, New York, United States. Located on the east end of Long Island, the school is the easternmost high school in New ...

in 1981.

College

After graduating from East Hampton, the 6'1, 175 lbs. Annacone played three years of college tennis for the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th sta ...

in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

over 1982–84. He was named the

Intercollegiate Tennis Association The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) is the governing body and coaches association of college tennis, both an advocate and authority, overseeing men’s and women’s varsity tennis at all levels – NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, ...

''Player of the Year'' in 1984. Annacone played 51–3 in singles while winning the

ITA Ita or ITA may refer to : Places and jurisdictions * ITA, ISO 3166-1 country code for Italy * Ita (Africa), an ancient city and former bishopric in Roman Mauretania, presently a Latin Catholic titular see * Itá, Paraguay People * Ita (pr ...

Indoor Singles Championship that year. He was named all-SEC and all-American all three years of his college career with the Volunteers, amassing a 115–22 career singles record.

Professional

The right-handed Annacone achieved his career best singles ranking in 1985 of world No. 12 and US No. 6. A

serve-and-volley Serve-and-volley is a style of play in tennis where the player serving moves quickly towards the net after hitting a serve, to attempt to hit a volley afterwards. In the serve-and-volley playstyle, the server attempts to hit a volley (a shot whe ...

er who would often chip and charge when returning serve, Annacone played on the ATP tour until 1992, amassing a career singles win-lose record of 157–131 in Grand Slam, Grand Prix, and ATP Tour events. He won three singles titles during his career and was a Wimbledon quarter-finalist in 1984. Annacone won more as a pro playing doubles, capturing 14 tournaments and achieving a high ranking in 1987 of world No. 3. With long-time partner Christo van Rensburg, Annacone won the 1985

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Ope ...

doubles title. Teamed with

David Wheaton David Wheaton (born June 2, 1969) is an American author, radio host, columnist, and former professional tennis player. Personal Born in Minneapolis as the youngest of four children. In his tennis carrier, he dated tennis star Mary Joe Fernández ...

, Annacone was a 1990 US Open finalist, as well.

Coaching

Annacone achieved even greater success as

's long-time coach. The two worked together from January 1995 until December 2001, and again from July 2002 until Sampras' retirement. From December 2001 to January 2003 Annacone was Managing Director of the

United States Tennis Association The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, ...

High Performance Program. He coached Tim Henman, beginning at the Paris Masters in 2003 (which Henman won) until the end of Henman's career in September 2007. Annacone became the Lawn Tennis Association's Head Coach in November 2006. He also became

Great Britain Davis Cup team The Great Britain Davis Cup team has represented the United Kingdom internationally since 1900 in the Davis Cup. Organised by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), it is one of the 50 members of International Tennis Federation's European associatio ...

coach in April 2008, following the resignation of

Peter Lundgren Peter Lundgren (born 29 January 1965) is a former professional male tennis player and tennis coach from Sweden. He preferred playing indoors, hardcourt and on grass to clay. Playing career Lundgren was one of the second generation of Swedish p ...

, while staying on with the LTA. Under his control the team lost in the 2008 Davis Cup World Group Play-offs against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. The following year they got relegated to Group II. In May 2010, Annacone announced his official departure from November 2010 onwards from the LTA and the

British Davis Cup team The Great Britain Davis Cup team has represented the United Kingdom internationally since 1900 in the Davis Cup. Organised by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), it is one of the 50 members of International Tennis Federation's European associat ...

after losing to

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

in Group II first round. Paul Annacone was hired by

to be his full-time coach on August 28, 2010 after a successful one-month trial period. Annacone led Federer to two straight year-end championship in 2010 and 2011, a return to the world No. 1 ranking, and his seventh

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is pla ...

. In 2006 Annacone released the ''Paul Annacone Tactical Tennis DVD Series''; a 4-DVD collection that demonstrates the strategies used by the pros in actual match situations. ''Attack the All-Court Player'', ''Beat the Baseliner'', ''Know Your Own Game'', and ''Neutralize the Net-Rusher'' present numerous scenarios along with drills and practice games for improving match-specific strategy on both sides of the net. In 2013, Annacone became a resident coach at ProTennisCoach.com – an online professional coaching site. In November 2013, it was announced that Annacone had begun working with American rising star

on a trial basis. She was ranked the world's number-12-player at the time. However, the two ended the relationship in July 2014. Annacone is also involved with

PlaySight Interactive PlaySight Interactive is a connected camera and artificial intelligence sports technology company, offering its Smart sports video platform for over 25 sports and across 20 countries, including basketball, tennis, ice hockey and soccer. There are o ...

, a sports technology company, where he works together with

Darren Cahill Darren Cahill (born 2 October 1965) is a tennis coach and former professional tennis player from Australia. In addition, Cahill is a tennis analyst for the Grand Slam events on the US sports network ESPN and a coach with the Adidas Player Devel ...

on the Coaching and Player Development team. In 2017, Annacone joined

Stan Wawrinka Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking of world No. 3 for the first time on 27 January 2014. His career highligh ...

's team for the grass court swing. For the 2018 season Annacone coached

Career finals

Singles: 6 (3–3)

Doubles: 30 (14–16)

Doubles performance timeline

Personal

Paul's son Nicholas attended his father's alma mater. His daughter, Olivia, attended the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...

. Annacone resides in

Woodland Hills, California Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Geography Woodland Hills is in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, which is located east of Ca ...

with his wife, Elisabeth Annacone, and son Emmett. He was inducted into the

Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame The Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame is an American sports hall of fame based in Suffolk County on Long Island, New York. The non-profit was established during 1990 to honor outstanding people, living or deceased, who have gained prominence and made s ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

in the Tennis Category with the Class of 1996.

References

External links

* * *
''CNNSI.com'' interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Annacone, Paul 1963 births Living people American people of Italian descent American expatriate sportspeople in England American expatriates in England American male tennis players American tennis coaches Australian Open (tennis) champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles People from Woodland Hills, Los Angeles People from Southampton (town), New York Tennessee Volunteers men's tennis players Tennis commentators Tennis people from California Tennis people from New York (state) People from East Hampton (town), New York East Hampton High School alumni