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 ...
player and current tennis coach. He is the former coach of 20-time
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
winner
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
, 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 t ...
. 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 of ...
, 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 w ...
.
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, Suffolk County, New York, United States. Located on the east end of Long Island, the school is the easternmost high school in New York State. It is part of the East Hampton Union Free S ...
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 state, ...
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 of ...
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, NC ...
''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 (prin ...
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
Players use different strategies while playing tennis to enhance their own strengths and exploit their opponent's weaknesses in order to gain the advantage and win more Point (tennis), points.
Players typically specialize or naturally play in a c ...
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
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
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
Christo van Rensburg (born 23 October 1962) is a former professional tennis player from South Africa.
Van Rensburg turned professional in 1983. He won his first doubles title on ATP Tour later that year at Cleveland.
Van Rensburg won 20 top-l ...
, 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 Open. Th ...
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 Coach Henman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Annacone_Coach_Henman.jpg)
Annacone achieved even greater success as
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 ...
'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
Timothy Henry Henman (born 6 September 1974) is a British former professional tennis player. Henman played a serve-and-volley style of tennis. He was the first British man to reach the singles semifinals of Wimbledon since Roger Taylor in the ...
, 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
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
Founded in 1888, the LTA promotes all levels of lawn tennis. It believes that tennis can provide "physical ...
'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 ...
, 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
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
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 Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, All England Club in ...
.
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
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 t ...
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 highlight ...
's team for the grass court swing. For the 2018 season Annacone coached
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 w ...
.
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 California St ...
.
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 ...
on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
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