Thanasi Kokkinakis: What ‘big kid’ Federer is really like... and the advice he gave me I can’t take
For the most part with Roger Federer, what the public sees, is what you get.
He’s really relaxed, an easygoing guy who loves to have fun with his team. If I was in his position — having that many slams under your belt and that much in the bank — you’d tend to feel a bit more relaxed!
He’s actually like a big kid at heart. He likes to joke around and have a bit of fun. He’ll talk a bit of rubbish, paying out his team, wanting to clown around.
The first year of Laver Cup I was reserve, so my main role was to amp up the crowd up and pump up my teammates.
I’ve watched a bit of college basketball in my time so I just came up with some bench celebrations. It was a complete circus on the bench, mucking around and some of the Europe players looking over and getting annoyed, but you could see Federer wanting to join in.
He was keeping a straight face but he talked to me after and said “I just wanted to join in. He loved the celebrations and energy.
Everyone is different in the locker room. The Eastern Europeans are serious, the Spanish speaking guys are there while the English speaking guys generally relax a bit more — bit of banter flying around.
But when Fed comes in he’s got a presence about him when he strolls in. He’s got a serious strut, got the shoelaces untied, just floating along and he’s super relaxed. He doesn’t have a big entourage, just a coach or two and physio — not like some guys who seriously have about 15 people with them.
I call Fed ‘GOAT’ the whole time and he’s got a nickname for me; ‘Thanazer’. It makes no sense, but he’ll just yell it out randomly when he sees me.
US Open last year I was walking through the players cafe and he yells out “THANAZER!”, stops the whole cafe, and there’s Fed waving with this massive grin on his face.
He came up with that nickname when training in Dubai with him. I’ve been twice and both went for a week and both were incredible. He likes practising in training weeks like this because younger guys will be there giving it everything, and he can set the agenda. What drills to do, when to train, what days off to have. And that’s fine. It’s just unreal as a young player to sit there and absorb.
He has plenty of fun with his team, plays jokes on them. His physio is an older guy, really good guy and been with Roger for a while, but he’s got terrible hands, just cannot catch. So Fed will, mid-practice, just start popping balls at him, when he least expects it trying to tube him. He’s just a kid sometimes.
Make no mistake though - he works so hard. One thing that stood out to me was the variety of drills on court. I was taken aback by his volleys the first time I hit with him. He just didn’t miss.
One thing he does is take time away from his opponent, and he moves without making noises. Rafa you can hear the output, Novak you can hear the sliding, Fed just moves silently and is lethal, he takes a step away from you.
It doesn’t look like he’s hitting that big, but it feels like the ball is coming at you twice as quick, and that’s from his drills of taking the ball early a lot, and working on his transition game.
One memory that stands out is him at the net, and I’m in one corner, and I’m moving him side-to-side burning out his legs and working on his short volleys. It’s all fitness work while on court, working on details.
I didn’t see too much of his fitness work, but he doesn’t throw too much iron around for his upper body. But his legs and calves are huge. If he shaved those things you would see them veins poppin’ on TV.
He’s told me his training has changed from his younger days. He used to do a lot of long distance running, now it’s just really short and sharp interval work, high intensity. And he does a stack of plyometrics, but that’s away with his fitness guy Pierre, away from everyone else.
But both weeks of those training blocks were super chilled. No stress. He had me for lunch one day, at one of those 6-star hotels. I was young, not much money, thankfully he covered it, was getting a bit tight, bit worried — ‘how the hell would I cover this?!’.
One piece of advice I’ve struggled with from him - he got injured when younger playing some social football. He said ‘if you’re not playing your sport don’t play’
I find that hard to listen to — I love playing basketball with my mates!
When we played I beat him at Miami in 2018. I’d come through qualifying, he may have been a bit off after winning Indian Wells just before, and I just felt comfortable.
Training with him had a bit to do with it, and he was he was good about it at the net, dropped a “well played Thanazer” with a massive smile on his face.
He was obviously a bit pissed, but I was like ‘dude, you are a legend’. His reaction speaks volumes for the type of guy he is.
I thought he may have retired after Laver Cup in Geneva last year but he’ll play up to the Olympics and see how he goes.
I reckon as long as he can compete with the top guys, he’ll keep going and he’s got that game style to finish points so early, that is one of the reasons for his longevity.
Look, no-one really knows on tour, but he’s more than earned the right to do whatever he wants!
I don’t know of a player who has said a bad word about him and when he does go, the locker room will miss him.
