At any of the four Grand Slams, a few minutes from Centre Court or Arthur Ashe stadium, one will find a tired looking rental car parked by the side of the road. This is where Christian Filhol has slept every night during tennis premier tournaments for the past 23 years.
Filhol, a 53 year old Frenchman with a faded yellow sunhat and a straggly grey beard, has worked with most of the WTA Tours leading players over the past three decades. Its a formidable list that includes Justine Henin, Mary Pierce, Li Na, Daniela Hantuchova, Elena Dementieva, Cara Black and Sania Mirza, to name just a few.
Coaching at the highest level can be an ego-driven business, and while most entourages share private apartments or luxury hotels with their player, Filhol prefers to sleep on the back seat of his vehicle, often to the dismay of his charges.
Ive slept in my car for almost 20 years now, even when Im back home, he explains. And I love it. I dont sleep well in a bed these days. My body is used to sleeping in a seat. I ask the players I work with to donate the money they would spend on my hotel to a charity, so I have charities I support in Cambodia, Ukraine, Zimbabwe. I prefer it this way.
This nomadic, almost bohemian lifestyle has landed him with a number of near misses. He was sleeping in his car near the Twin Towers during the 2001 US Open, just a week before 9/11. Three years later, he was supposed to be on a beach in Sri Lanka when the Boxing Day tsunami struck, but his late decision to head to a local tennis club to give lessons saved his life.
