Stan Wawrinka was looking for an upper-hand at Wimbledon when he hired 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek as a coach. The funny thing is that Krajicek, as he revealed in a press conference last week, actually was not a fan of grass as a player. With Wimbledon fast approaching, the Dutchman explained the unusual secret to his success on the lawns of the All-England Club.
Tricks to Improving Movement
Krajicek did not enjoy playing on grass during his career, primarily because he struggled with movement. A friend of his recommended a slightly different method to help him avoid slipping and sliding on the grass.
So the story goes, “I started to play on other surfaces, on purpose, on hard court, if possible. There were two things I didn't like about grass court tennis. One was moving that I thought was difficult, and I remedied that. A friend of mine, my physiotherapist, recommended that I should do some karate. In karate, you learn how to fall and roll that would have been helpful because I was afraid to slip and fall. And the other thing was I had no rhythm. Of course, my game was not really about rhythm but still I would like to hit the balls sometimes.”
Practicing Habits
On top of the karate, the Krajicek certainly did not practice the way one might expect of a Wimbledon champion. In fact, the Dutchman did not practice very much on grass at all. He explained that “on grass, every day, I felt like I was the worst player, and then I read that [Andre] Agassi, when he won Wimbledon in 1992, had hardly practiced on grass. I did just that. 20-30 minutes on the hard court, I felt like I was playing good again. So, every day I tried to practice on the hard court. Yeah, it was really important.”
When asked whether or not he was going to get Wawrinka, who has never won a title on grass or gone past the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, to try karate, Krajicek responded, “he's not afraid to fall. That's only for people, who are like me who walk and run unnaturally on the grass.”
Wawrinka will be seeded fourth at Wimbledon.