{"id":5023,"date":"2025-07-18T08:39:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T08:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/5023\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T08:39:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T08:39:17","slug":"leeds-closing-in-on-signing-of-player-whose-father-once-embarrassed-roger-federer-on-a-tennis-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/5023\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds closing in on signing of player whose father once embarrassed Roger Federer on a tennis court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Leeds United have been busy strengthening their ranks ahead of their return to the Premier League next season.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/leeds-united\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leeds<\/a> have officially signed Jaka Bijol, Gabriel Gudmundsson, Sebastiaan Bornauw and Lukas Nmecha so far.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/leeds-set-to-sign-terrific-player-who-pep-guardiola-once-said-his-manchester-city-side-couldnt-deal-with\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sean Longstaff is reportedly set for a move to Elland Road<\/a>, while <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/club-insiders-believe-their-dynamic-international-player-will-join-leeds-this-summer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anton Stach is said to have agreed terms with Leeds<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While Stach may not be a particularly big name on these shores, in Germany he is a well-known player who has represented Germany at senior level.<\/p>\n<p>Stach is also known for being the son of a famous sports commentator who famously embarrassed Roger Federer on a tennis court a decade ago.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"691\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-949014508-1024x691.jpg\" alt=\"Boris Becker, Birgit Noessing and Matthias Stach attend the Eurosport press conference\" class=\"wp-image-966671\" \/>Photo by Hannes Magerstaedt\/Getty ImagesMatthias Stach is a German sports broadcasting legend<\/p>\n<p>Stach\u2019s father is Matthias Stach, one of Germany\u2019s most famous sports commentators. Indeed, he is known as the \u2018voice of tennis\u2019 in his home country.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, Stach won the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/event\/ev0000283\/2018\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Best Sports Program<\/a> accolade at the German Television Awards for his reporting of the US Open on Eurosport, together with Boris Becker.<\/p>\n<p>Three years earlier, Stach \u2013 a ranked tennis player in Germany earlier in his career \u2013 enjoyed a rally with Federer after his win against Florian Mayer at ATP Halle.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Stach not only managed to hold a rally with the Swiss legend, but also to show him up with a very cheeky between-the-legs passing shot which left his opponent stunned,\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/tennis\/atp-halle\/2015\/roger-federer-stunned-as-tv-commentator-beats-him-with-cheeky-shot_sto4792390\/story.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">TNT Sports<\/a> reported at the time.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Federer dropped down in laughter after he was comprehensively beaten in the rally, with Stach having to hold his hand up to jokingly apologise after celebrating the showboat.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/another-international-player-now-set-to-snub-leeds-united-for-serie-a-move\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Another international player now set to snub Leeds United for Serie A switch as Napoli move looms<\/a><\/p>\n<p>How Anton Stach\u2019s career was shaped by his father<\/p>\n<p>Stach took part in an interview with the Hoffenheim <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsg-hoffenheim.de\/en\/news\/overview\/2023\/10\/stach-my-father-is-my-biggest-critic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">website<\/a> in 2023, where he talked about his formative years.<\/p>\n<p>He was asked whether his relationship with his father was similar to that of Granit Xhaka, who said he had never been praised by his own dad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s true,\u201d said Stach. \u201cHe taught me how to deal with criticism at a very early age. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we won 5-0 at youth level and I scored three goals, he never said: \u2018Great game, great job\u2019, but rather \u2018In that situation, you should have done this and that better\u2019. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"727\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2215886480-1024x727.jpg\" alt=\"Anton Stach of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim plays the ball during the Bundesliga match between TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and FC Bayern Munich at the PreZero-Arena on May 17, 2025\" class=\"wp-image-966367\" \/>Photo by J\u00fcrgen Fromme \u2013 firo sportphoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe always had the opinion: \u2018You get enough praise from others anyway!\u2019 I think that left its mark on me, but at the same time it also helped me a lot. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s still like that today: I actually talk to him after every game and he openly tells me his opinion. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy father is my biggest critic. That\u2019s important. I think that\u2019s the only way to progress. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut of course I\u2019m happy when he praises me \u2013 at least from time to time. Because that does happen too, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds United have been busy strengthening their ranks ahead of their return to the Premier League next season.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[5809,49,48,5810,5811,5812,2189,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-5023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-anton-stach","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-english-premier-league","12":"tag-leeds-united","13":"tag-matthias-stach","14":"tag-roger-federer","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}