Peter Carter (tennis)

Peter Carter (9 August 1964 – 1 August 2002) was an Australian tennis player and coach. He is widely known as the first and most influential coach of Roger Federer.

Playing career[]

Carter won the 1985 Melbourne Tennis Tournament with Darren Cahill. He reached a career high of 173 in singles and 117 in doubles on the ATP,^[1] but his career was hampered by injuries.^[2]

Coaching career[]

Carter is widely known particularly as the coach of tennis champion Roger Federer.^[3] He met Federer when he was 9 and quickly identified him as a future world no 1. Federer has said that “Peter was an incredibly inspirational and important person in my life. He taught me respect for each person. I can never thank him enough.”^[4]

Federer won his first Grand Slam event the year following Carter’s death at the 2003 Wimbledon Championships.^[5]

Death[]

Carter died in a car accident on 1 August, 2002 while on a belated honeymoon to Kruger National Park in South Africa (his wife Sylvia had been recovering from Hodgkin's disease). Carter was in a vehicle which swerved off the road to avoid a head-on collision with a minivan. ^[6]