Roger Federer admits to 'bad coaching' after Fabio Fognini loss at Laver Cup

Updated 21/09/2019 at 10:19 GMT

Roger Federer admits his attempts to coach European teammate Fabio Fognini at the Laver Cup on Friday may not have been as useful as he'd hoped.

Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Fabio Fognini

Image credit: Eurosport

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After telling the Italian to "stop with the negativity" during his match against Team World's Jack Sock, Federer admitted he could have done better.

Federer said: “Bad coaching.

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“It’s that simple. Terrible coaching before, during, and after. Maybe we said the right things afterwards, you know, to cheer him up again. But everything that led to the performance didn’t work."

Amazing insight as Federer coaches Fognini during his game against Jack Sock

However, he also thought Fognini's nerves might have gotten the better of him.

“No, I think Fabio struggled, you know, just to shake off the nerves. That was my opinion. He tried, we tried, and honestly Jack started to play very well.

“Got to give that to Jack in that second set. He was able to keep Fabio uncomfortable, and we tried to get Fabio comfortable. But Jack didn’t agree with our plan, so there you go.”

Roger Federer coaching Fabio Fognini during his game against Jack Sock

Image credit: Eurosport

Team Europe’s Fabio Fognini might have lost his match against Team World’s Jack Sock, but he had plenty of input from both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal along the way.

Reacting to the loss, Fognini said: “If somebody like [Federer and Nadal] and Bjorn [Borg, captain] close to me say something, I have to open my ear and just listen.

"I mean, it’s not happening like every week that I have this kind of possibility to try to understand legends of our sport... I’m lucky to be here.”

Before Fognini's match, Dominic Thiem had taken on Canada's Denis Shapovalov, winning by 6-4, 5-7, 13-11, and hailed the support he recieved from fans during that match.

“The atmosphere and the emotions were outstanding. It was really unbelievable,” said Thiem.

“Honestly, I never heard something louder in my life than when Roger entered the court before the match. Was unbelievable. Then the atmosphere in the match was also great.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas also won his match against Taylor Fritz by 6-2, 1-6, 10-7, and was delighted to play in front of his childhood heroes.

Tsitsipas said: “If you would tell me 20 years ago, actually 10 years ago, that I would be playing an event having Roger and Rafa and four more top-10 guys by my side, I wouldn’t believe you. That’s just magnificent."

Finally Alexander Zverev and Federer doubled up to beat Sock and Shapovalov 6-3, 7-5 to round up the day's action and give Team Europe a 3-1 lead on the first day of the tournament.

Federer said: “We are very happy with 3-1, I tell you that.

"I’m not a negative or a pessimistic guy. I’m a super-positive guy. But I was looking at a 2-2 today before the day. Just the feelings I had.”

The Swiss added his thanks to the audience in Geneva.

“It’s intense,” he said. “Great looking stadium. Maximum wave. The noise at the player welcome, that loud, is very special for me and the team.”

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