Australian coach Darren Cahill has shared his sentiments about the back problems currently being experienced by world number five Roger Federer, stating that he needs to be wary about this. He shared his thoughts via an exclusive interview with tennis site The Changeover.
“That’s been an issue for a couple of years. Credit to Rog, he hasn’t really made a huge deal of it. We’ve seen him struggle with it on-court a few times now. It’s becoming more evident that it’s popping up more often than it used to, and that’s a problem for him.
He has to find a way at his age now to at least level that out, make that back issue plateau to the point where it doesn’t get any worse, or find a way that he can overcome that. Because with the way the game’s improving, the way these players are playing, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, these guys are improving. They’re not stagnating.
So for Roger to constantly have to take that time off, you feel like you’re slipping behind. Not only are you not playing great at the moment, but you can’t put in the work in the offseason or those weeks off to improve as a tennis player. We all need that in competitive situation. Unless you’ve put that work in on the practice court, then you can’t walk onto the court and feel like you’re going to get it done against these best players in the world.
That’s sort of where Roger is at the moment. The last two years, you feel like he’s been climbing up the wall, then slipping a little bit because of the back, then climbing back up, and slipping a little bit, while the other guys are just shooting straight up the wall.
The back is the main issue. I think the racquet is a great adjustment that needs time. He’s been using the same technology now for 15 or so years. I think it’s absolutely worthwhile to try. But more importantly, he needs to be healthy.
I was with Andre [Agassi] for six years, and the last couple of years, when he was 34, 35 years old, he struggled with his back as well. It was a real balancing act, making sure that when he did step on court, he was healthy and fit. We also didn’t keep him on-court too long, it would actually wear him down. Gil Reyes, the fitness training coach of Andre that was working with me, we were constantly in conversation about what he needed a couple of weeks out from a tournament, what he was going to need one week out from a tournament, what he would need one day before a tournament started. That conversation between player, coach, and trainer becomes even more important when a player gets to 30 and above.”
