Roger Federer Will be Without Main Coach in Toronto; Stefan Edberg to Step Up

Roger Federer will be without his main coach Severin Luthi during his stint in the 2014 Rogers Cup in Toronto set from. On the sidelines as Federer’s coach will be compatriot Stefan Edberg, who himself is a six-time Grand Slam champion.

Edberg was tapped to be part of the Federer’s team just last December 2013 and the 48-year-old Swiss believes he will do well as Federer’s coach at least in the Toronto tilt.

"I'm here on my own this week and I think I'm coming with the few ideas how he can handle different things, maybe technically and a few small things," Edberg said via The Local. "I can't make that much of a difference, but a little bit of a difference I think I can make. It has been good so far.”

Edberg also talked about Federer’s near-win at the All-England Club where the Swiss Master lost a five-set final to Serbian Novak Djokovic missing out on the 2014 Wimbledon title and what could have been his 18th Grand Slam title.

Edberg remains positive that his ward can achieve more things despite losing ground the past couple of years. Edberg describes the Toronto tournament as an “important week” and the team is using it as warm-up event in preparation for the bigger 2014 US Open.

Federer won the Rogers Cup 2006 and 2004 editions while Djokovic won in 2007, 2011 and 2012. Rafael Nadal, who won in 2005, 2008 and 2013 will not be able to defend his title because of a wrist injury.

Federer and Djokovic are joined as top seeds by Andy Murray (Great Britain), Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland), Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria), Milos Raonic (Canada), Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) and David Ferrer (Spain) who all have earned a first-round bye.

Federer will open the Canadian campaign versus local bet Peter Polansky on Wednesday, August 6 starting at 9am AEDT.