Pete Sampras, arguably the greatest player to date, had a weakness with return of serve on the backhand side McEnroe and Connors lacked killer forehands. Ivan Lendl had an inability to finish off points, was insecure at the net and changed his game to try to win Wimbledon, something he failed to do.Bjorn Borg had hardly any weaknesses but could not consistently hurt opponents with his groundstrokes. His 11 Slams all came at Wimbledon and in Paris, showing perhaps that on hard courts he was less effective at running down balls than on other surfaces He also struggled under New York’s lights. He appreciates what he has, and his humility may yet be his stepping stone to greatness “I’m still at the beginning,” he said yesterday.

“The road is long, there’s a lot of hard work to do and you never know when the day might arrive that you are sick of travelling.”I’m grateful for every tournament I win. Ditto the ’70s era of Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe, Ilie Nastase and Stan Smith.So we come to the “modern greats” and each had weaknesses. It works.Let’s hope it continues to work because he can become an all-time great, as dominant or more so in his own era than anyone before. You simply cannot compare tennis today with the ’60s and earlier. While the triumphs of Rod Laver and Roy Emerson (23 of the 40 Slams between then from 1960 to 1969) were outstanding, they can’t compare to these days of super fitness and toughness and breadth of competition, physical and mental. Roger admits this isn’t some trend to put coaches out of business. Many people have helped him, including Lundgren and before him the late Peter Carter, who coached Roger in his formative years.

It’s just that at the moment, things are working OK, he has various hitting partners, a physio, friends. If he got pissed off, opponents might take a sliver of inspiration from him being ruffled, or else want to put him in his place.Some people think it is remarkable that Federer has been without a coach since Peter Lundgren and he parted amicably last year. He has an aura of calm and assurance that not only helps him but damages others How? Because he never gets pissed off. He’s ready for his next shot before his opponent has even played.