From the time of W. Timothy Gallwey’s book of The Inner Game of Tennis it’s ABC that the experience, the life-changing ideas are transferable from one area to the other and especially from tennis to the business world…
From both single finals of the this year Cincinnati tennis championship there seems to me one conclusion: the war is the one you should win, some battles you can lose on the way to the win but the most important battles you should win anyhow…
That’s the lesson a lot of times from tennis matches where there is no draw, somebody will leave the court as winner and somebody as loser. There is no time limit, there is a tool, the tie-break but even with this a tennis match could be really long (last year in Wimbledon Isner and Mahut had palyed 11 hours, the score of the longest tie-break in history was 70:68…)
Federer has in 20 minutes won the first set against Djokovic at 6:0 (!!!). Then, in the second set he wasn’t able to break Djoko’s serve games and in a very tight tie-break at the end of the second set he won 8:6…
Kerber has beaten Li in the first set at 6:1, then he lost the second at 3:6 and then, he lost the third one at 1:6. Li was very convincing from the second set on, she payed really very very well. Let’s not forget that Kerber has earlier beaten here Serena Williams (after Serena’s long winning rally in this year) and Kvitova while Li has beaten Venus Williams (32!) who is now back in the game. The turning point in this final was at 4:3 (to Li) in the second set where in a long game where Kerber wasn’t able to win… She has practically collapsed from that moment on, the time was not enough to revive herself (OK, also, Li played as I said extremely well til the end of the match).
In the Federer-Djokovic match the second game was a very little bit rather towards Djokovic, he was really be able to come back quickly after the devastating 0:6… His forehand cross shots had newly become phenomenal, and Federer has sometimes too much pushed the backhand of Djokovic, even at the net, instead of ending the rally by some short cross volleys… Anyhow, in the tie-break (at this level the tie-break is impossible to say who will win, it’s so intense…) Federer has won with an inch… Who knows what could have happened if by chance it was Djokovic who won the second set?!
Both Federer and Kerber has won in a royal way the first battles, the first sets. And in both cases it were the opponents who profited from the situation, who have been empowered from their temporary losing situation. Federer has won finally but Kerber has lost the confidence in his play for the rest of the match…
What is happening inside you when you are winning the first set in your life? In your battles: are you just letting go temporarily your enthusiasm, your interest or are you keeping or even make stronger the steam what fuels your whole physical and psychical engine?
These two matches were excellent exemples how it works and how you shouldn’t lose your steam when in the winning stream…
Miklos Szilagyi - coaching.szm@gmail.com
