Roger federer severin luthi biography
The Rally: 20-plus years in the making, how writing The Master humanized Federer for its author
Chris,
You did a great job gathering and marshaling a lot of information. It may not get mentioned on the cover, or in the promotion for this book, but you spend a fair amount of time profiling Federer’s biggest rivals, and narrating his era. I liked being reminded of what a talent and a character Safin was; I’m not sure I knew that he and Federer spent so much time together in their early playing days. I also thought you did a good job of filling in Nadal’s backstory and summing up his relationship with Federer.
And as you say, your interviews with Federer are always revealing. Most interviews with him are, because he rarely limits his comments strictly to the topic at hand, and there seems to be a porous filter between what goes through his head and what comes out of his mouth. I think fans of his will enjoy your accounts of your trips with him and talks with him. Interesting that when he’s in a group of friends and business colleagues, Federer will spend as much time listening as he does talking.
There were two seemingly small anecdotes about Federer in the book that I thought were revealing.
As a teenager, before he turned pro, Federer told his dentist that he had dropped out of school to pursue tennis full-time. His dentist, in good conservative Swiss style, scoffed at the idea. Federer’s response? Get a new dentist. He may be an unassuming person, and he may have been a somewhat lazy athlete when he was younger, but he always harbored global-sized ambitions. Federer speaks half the languages of Europe, but that early willingness to take a risk on himself struck me as highly American. He also understood the value of surrounding himself with people who wouldn’t make him doubt his goals or his ability to achieve them.
Later in the book, you take a 7:00 A.M. flight with Federer from sunny California to wintry Chicago for business. For a lot of us, this would be
Severin Lüthi
Swiss tennis player and coach
| Country (sports) | Switzerland |
|---|---|
| Born | (1976-01-05) 5 January 1976 (age 49) |
| Plays | Right-handed |
| Career record | 0–0 |
| Career titles | 0 |
| Highest ranking | No. 622 (23 October 1995) |
| Career record | 0–0 |
| Career titles | 0 |
| Highest ranking | No. 448 (25 November 1996) |
| Awards | |
Severin Lüthi (born 5 January 1976) is a Swiss tennis coach and former player. He has coached the Swiss Davis Cup Team for many years and has also been a long-time coach of Roger Federer. Sporadically, he has also shown up in the coaching camp of fellow Swiss tennis star Stan Wawrinka.
Lüthi grew up in Stettlen, on the outskirts of Bern. He played tennis in his youth and once beat Gustavo Kuerten. He gave up tennis at the age of 20 and served a commercial apprenticeship with his father's company.
He briefly attended university, but found that it did not interest him. Instead, he got involved in sports, first soccer, then as assistant coach of the Swiss Davis Cup team in 2002 when Peter Carter was killed in an automobile accident in South Africa. After three years, he was promoted to team captain.
He has toured with Federer between 2007 and 2022.
He coached the team that won the Davis Cup for Switzerland in November 2014, as Roger Federer beat Richard Gasquet.
Luthi joined the coaching team of Danish tennis player Holger Rune in December 2023 and left the team in January 2024.
References
- Biography on the Credit Suisse site (no longer available)
Roger Federer's ex-coach Severin Luthi breaks silence on sudden split with Holger Rune
Severin Luthi has spoken for the first time since leaving Holger Rune’s team. The former coach of Roger Federer joined the Dane’s camp in mid-December and travelled to the Australian Open with him. But it was announced this week that they would not be continuing their partnership because of scheduling issues.
Rune built a team of ‘super coaches’ at the end of 2023, hiring Boris Becker in October. He then added Luthi during the off-season, with the pair set to share travelling duties when it came to accompanying the world No. 7 at tournaments.
The job was Luthi’s first since Federer retired, as he previously coached the 20-time Grand Slam champion between 2007 and 2022. The 48-year-old appeared in Rune’s box at the recent Australian Open but it was the first and last time that he joined the Dane on the road, as they have since parted ways.
Rune’s mum and manager Aneke announced the news this week, and Luthi has now broken his silence on the split. Speaking to Blick, he confirmed Aneke’s claims that the “timing” was “not right”.
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Luthi added: “If you notice this, then I say, we would rather separate now than in six months.” The Swiss coach was still happy to have had the brief, experience with Rune, claiming that their work together was “anything but a quick fix.”
He continued: “I think about things like this carefully, maybe sometimes too carefully. I'm glad I was able to have this experience - it was my firs Roger Federer's long-time coach Severin Luthi has joined Holger Rune's camp as one of his coaches alongside Boris Becker. The world No 8 recently admitted that he and his young rivals needed to do better at stopping Novak Djokovic from winning more Majors. And Rune appears to be putting together the perfect super team to help him in his quest. Rune announced that Luthi had joined his team in an Instagram post on Wednesday. The 20-year-old has been completing his pre-season in Monte Carlo under the guidance of Becker, who recently took on a full-time job as Rune's coach following a successful end to 2023. "Very happy to welcome Severin to my team alongside Boris," the Dane wrote alongside a photo of himself standing with Luthi, Becker, his performance coach Lapo Becherini, and his mother and manager Aneke Rune. The Swiss coach previously worked with Federer for 15 years before the 20-time Major winner retired in 2022. Luthi has also worked with Switzerland's Davis Cup team since 2002 and was promoted to captain in 2005. It means that Rune is now being mentored by the former coaches of both Federer and Djokovic, as Becker worked with the Serb from late 2013 to late 2016. Click here to join our WhatsApp community to be the first to receive breaking and exclusive tennis news. Just in Murray lands prestigious role in British tennis during Wimbledon lead-up [LATEST] It means that Luthi and Becker have coached against each other on several occasions as Federer and Djokovic met 14 times in the period that both men were working with them. It included three Grand Slam finals - Wimbledon in 2014 and Wimbledon and the US Open in 2015, all won by Djokovic. But they will now be teaming up to help Rune
Roger Federer's ex-coach joins Boris Becker on Holger Rune's team in bid to stop Djokovic