Former coach reveals how Federer's wife influenced his success and opens up on two other factors

Roger Federer's former coach Paul Dorochenko has revealed that the Swiss ace's career was brought into track with the help of three factors, including a sports psychologist whom he saw for three to four years. Following that he found his wife after little interaction with girls and she created a "bubble" for Federer which allowed him to concentrate only on tennis.

After discovering his potential as a player, Nike came on board with his first big sponsorship break and their marketing department was influential in making a gentleman out of an otherwise petulant kid at the time.

The transformation worked well for the Swiss maestro, as he went on to win 20 Grand Slam titles, the latest being at Melbourne, where he won his sixth Australian Open title, beating Marin Cilic in the final. He became only the fourth player after Margaret Court, Serena Williams and Steffi Graf to win 20 or more major singles titles.

The 36-year-old followed that up by becoming the oldest world number one, eclipsing the record set by Andre Agassi way back in 2003. Federer achieved the milestone by reaching the semi-finals of the Rotterdam Open, which he went on to win, defeating Grigor Dimitrov 6-2 6-2 in the finals.

Federer beat Rafael Nadal to the number one spot, with the players only separated by a mere 155 points before Rotterdam. This was Federer's fourth stint as the world number one and has spent more time at the top of the table than any other player in tennis history. However, Dorochenko revealed that the same would not have been possible if not for the timely intervention of his wife and other factors.

"We put him a sports psychologist who worked with him from 18 to 21 or 22," Dorochenko said, as quoted by the Express.

"Afterwards, he had little experience with girls, he had a little girlfriend, and immediately he found his wife, who is an ambitious person, who comes from Czechoslovakia, likes money, power, and in the end she has protected Federer a lot.

"[She] made a bubble where Federer was just for tennis.

"And the third was Nike, it was with a lot of money and the marketing department told him: 'Look, we want you to be a gentleman'."