Like most young people, Sloane Stephens is amazed by the older generation’s lack of 21st-century skills.
However, the 21-year-old American may regret spelling out just how rudimentary the skill set of her coach, Paul Annacone, is in this digital age after her first-round win at the French Open.
Annacone, the 51-year-old former coach of Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, has been helping Stephens since late last year, but obviously not with how to communicate.
Photo: AFP
Stephens started by saying the relationship was “a learning experience for all” and said little things like “putting on his Wi-Fi for him four times a day” made it a little tough sometimes.
Then she really warmed up.
“He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He had a Blackberry — it’s really weird. He switched to an iPhone. If you see the letters on his iPhone, one word is the whole screen. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Stephens said.
“He doesn’t know how to put on Wi-Fi or anything. So in Australia he had like a [US]$2,000 phone bill because he was like on Twitter. He had his data roaming on or whatever, instead of being on Wi-Fi,” she added.
“I’m like, dude. He’s like sending Twitter pictures off his data. I’m like, that is not ideal,” she said. “Yeah, he’s had some trouble. He’s old, so it’s tough for him. But like here he’s [annoyed] at the Wi-Fi because it doesn’t like automatically sign back on. He’s like ‘What’s the password?’”
“I’m like ‘Oh my God, help him,’” she said.
Stephens, the 15th seed, beat Peng Shuai of China 6-4, 7-6 (10/8).
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