Dear reader, I have honestly not seen much about the Australian Open , nor have I been in person, coinciding largely with my last days at the Queen’s Club and in London , which I have only seen the occasional brushstroke, but not large quantities or of tennis , or the myriad of details that always the tennis and life leave us on our journey.
If I want to write about some details of players that I have been able to see, not much but enough to explain some things to share. I will be doing it detailed player by player, I repeat only those few of which I have seen some detail, I cannot speak about what I have not seen, it would be disrespectful, of course also except for Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal , from which I already talked about them in the previous article.
BOYS:
Andy Murrray: Without emotional rest, without respite, I would arrive very mentally forced to this Australian Open , as I said in my first article of the year, about what I hope for this 2017, seeing through networks and media, how his preseason was working, at less in this beginning, but took a necessary breath, I could not expect much more from him at this time. I think that was the case, basically because I am surprised by the excessive stress in which they move, absolutely unnecessary, even more so in a simple sport, no matter how much is at stake. We will see the rest of the year.
Stan Wawrinka: My feeling, a player who walks with a certain protective layer, when it is possible to open, someone noble appears, but when he gets hooked on it, he plays with a lot of body weight, so much accumulated tension, that there is no other solution to take it out, to Wait for it to explode (it shouldn’t be like that) to take out all its anger, anger that will never play in your favor, like the racket breakage the other day. He is capable of everything, but as in many other cases the understanding between what is a strong competitive spirit and what is mental strength, clarity of concepts is essential. We will see the rest of the year.
Daniel Evans: Perhaps the fact of having suffered a great misfortune, such as the loss of his coach, made him understand and look at life in such a different way, at least a few steps ahead to face it something different, showing it in his game, both in Sydney and here in Melbourne , a better handling of nerves and the desire to do well, would have played even more in his favor. We will see his line to follow the rest of the year.
Marin Cilic: I saw him lacking in freshness, lacking in ideas, determination, I don’t know if it would be because of having too high a bar, raising his egos too much, doing a job more of quantity than quality, a pleasant mistake by the way, I feel that maybe a lack of connection with himself looking for his own label …. We will see the rest of the year.
Alexander Zverev: He is by far the one who best comes in that balance between competitive spirit and mental strength, danger, fame, deification, not valuing the road, going out on the track thinking more about the rival and showing everyone the good which is more than thinking about proving to yourself that you don’t know where the limit may be. You should not be confused, more or less like most young people are coming and even some not so young that they are confused, mainly due to the total lack of patience.
Frances Tiafoe: One thing is to play aggressive, and another is to play completely crazy, releasing a completely exorbitant adrenaline, without driving, without clear guidance, I imagine that your body at the end of each game must suffer its own for introducing such extreme energy, without direction or connection. He is a very interesting player, but human must know where he is and how to go about that, otherwise his career will be diminished, although this is something common in many of the young people who come from behind.
Ernesto Escobedo: I have not seen him play yet, I would like to see him, to draw clearer conclusions, but I have been following him for a while through the results, something that I do not like very much but hey, because I believe in the road, not in the As a result, however, tennis is a sport full of circumstantial successes and not so much of constancy, my feeling is that Escobedo , without anyone having spoken about him yet, is traveling in a good constancy worth mentioning. We will see how its projection follows.
Milos Raonic: My feeling is that he has risen year after year with a defined game, strictly based on his serve, if I look at Pete Sampras , apart from the fact that the demand is different now, he had different varieties, now at this time, he asks different things, much more variety, and not closing in on a single way of playing, much less emotionally, you should doubt and think less, paying more attention to yourself. Easy to talk but not so easy to do.
Ivo Karlovic: In terms of style, he does not separate much from Raonic , although if he is much more closed in living off his serve, a pity, because if he left his closed circuit, limited thinking, he would open up his emotional and tennis field, with that serve I could get to do really important things.
Horacio Zeballos: Belief, use all the varieties that the track gives you, look for solutions at the moment, intelligence, positioning and movements.
Grigor Dimitrov: Last year a few weeks after finishing the Queen’s tournament , around July I said that I had seen a very different Dimitrov from the previous year, which would be followed in the next year (this 2017), in fact he went ahead, making a good end of the season, and this year reaching the semifinals of the Australia Open, losing against Nadal , he differs from patience, he lacked a lot of patience, more calm, that in his most difficult shot but at the same time more beautiful You could see the lack of firmness with his backhand, for not having enough calm and fixation on himself. It is not going astray, we will see the rest of the year.
Denis Istomin: Another of the many anecdotes that I experience through the Queen’s Club , he left me, back in 2015 , in the exchange of a few words with him, then I said to myself I hope he does well, he’s a good boy, in fact he follows him more in the ranking, challengers, as he was doing, was unemployed for a while due to injury. I admit that I was unaware of his history of the car accident … all the way and overcoming, he should not stay in a circumstantial moment, such as defeating Novak Djokovic and Pablo Carreño Busta , but all the way to compete again in an important level, the results are momentary, the journey is continuous.
About his mother, it is beautiful, that affection, that support, is fundamental, however in one’s personal process, the need for independence and detachment, for the emotional and creative development of oneself, is fundamental, the not mixing of one mother or father in this process, beyond the advice abroad, because otherwise anchoring in a comfort zone without emotional development (the human is taken for granted) will be more than remarkable.
In any case, playing with that energy, that spirit, that light, that desire, nothing to lose and much to gain, surprising himself at the level shown, should be the bread and butter on the slopes, always from the beginning. a more emotional, real perspective and connection of our personality with our own nature, so as not to lose what the meaning of tennis and life is, walking without flashes or self-deception, knowing that if you really want to, you can. We will see the rest of the year.
Novak Djokovic: A lot has been said, lack of intensity, intention and so on. We must not forget that Djokovic , has been one of those children who was suffering a war in his country, his development was probably more complicated than many others of his classmates. That he is in that process of searching for his self within himself, of seeking a sense of life within that cruel and closed cake in which he finds himself, also honors him, regardless of not agreeing with the approach provided by Pepe Imaz , however, that he is asking himself questions so as not to deceive himself that is fantastic.
That said, looking for meaning in your life, searching within yourself, is not at odds with the emotional handling of the situations that your profession puts you in front of day after day, the stress of the profession is miniscule compared to the stress that we ourselves stupid human beings add to it even in leisure time; Nor is it at odds as we say for my land, “having blood”, having that “look of the tiger” , putting a balanced intensity or activation in line with everything that life offers us. Both psychological-scientific and spiritual extremes are not good, not good at all. We will see how Novak Djokovic evolves, where I expect more from him for the second part of the season, it is the minimum time necessary for the process that he is carrying out to begin to be noticed positively in theory.
Fernando Verdasco: It is a shame with the level of tennis he has, that he jumps to a court noticing what the rival is doing to him, as he described verbally the other day towards his box, it is a shame that he forgets his personality, if himself, of what he knows how to do well, to look at his true potential, but above all well due to a total absence of psychological and emotional calm, I don’t think his body is appreciating all that lack of calm. It makes him angry especially because of himself, because anger, frustration, the way he walks, has to take its toll both physically and mentally, he has everything to do what he wants in this tennis, we will see how the year evolves .
I will not finish talking about Verdasco , but first, ask for a speedy recovery for his sister and his brother-in-law, news that he did not know, all my support for him and his family, also wishing him that this whole situation allows him to start seeing life differently , I can empathize with him very well, because I know what I am talking about, basically I have lived a situation not too far removed from it, also twice, the extra stress destroys us and can destroy us completely. I said a hug and speedy recovery.
I only saw one match on men’s doubles, the semifinals between Guillermo Garcia Lopez / Pablo Carreño Busta and the Brian brothers, the Spaniards almost planted themselves in their second Grand Slam final, as they did in the past USOPEN , they really lacked more vision, belief and entangle more overly electric Brian, where also curiously in recent times, that electricity affects the many physical problems in view of the physiotherapeutic strips that they use in different parts of their body.
On the winners Henri Kontinen / John Peers , current winners of the masters cup as well, those that the press, who supposedly follows tennis, did not even know them, have already been a long year, being a really close couple, they seem only one, with a Mutual energy, it is a luxury to see them, I already said that I did not see the Brian as winners, they have been with extra excess electricity for some time, affecting high-low.
I have left many boy names, but these are the ones that I have been able to see in this Australia Open , I repeat the rest I do not speak, because I have not been able to see them, and it will be a total lack of respect.
GIRLS:
Eugine Bouchard: He has a lot of freshness, fair play and very subtle, however he lacks a clarity of ideas, vision, to know how to read what is in front of him, the feeling not only for tennis, … the feeling that he goes to other things , where at times it reminds you of Anna Kournikova , it is important to stop and know the real value of this life, but stupid disgust will be more frequent, not only due to the development of human maturity, normal due to age but also emotional maturity. We will see the rest of the year.
Coco Vandeweghe: I loved her spirit, her smile, in which the journalist said “she never lost her smile”. picaresque, lack of humility. She hit with great forcefulness, poise and without fear, negative point her lack of mobility, activation and connection with herself and with the court in this case because it is tennis. We will see the rest of the year.
Garbiñe Muguruza: It’s just my feeling that she really plays very contained, stiff, suffocated, I only saw her first game, I told myself she is playing with that energy, at the end of her games she has to have some really enormous physical, muscular pain … the funny thing minutes later, not to win the first set, looks at his box, saying no, no and no, and asks for the assistance of the physiotherapist.
Simply, seeing her emotionally so broken, suffering after suffering, in a sport I will never understand it, hitting the hit of course, she should remember a little more how her walk was, and the energy displayed by her, in the past Roland Garros . You have to look inside yourself, look for your personality, your identity, because on the track, the air that comes out is from the person too, hiding everything and then exploiting it to the beast, it does not give any benefit. You have to enjoy, and drown in the obsession of immediate results. We will see how it works throughout the year.
Venus Williams: Really impressive, she pulls, she pulls and she pulls, with the feeling that she now enjoys more than before, with almost 37 years of standing in the final, balanced in everything, in the game I saw of her, against Coco , she continued with temper and balance, very important, just finalist … The feeling of certain things can be learned from her.
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni: In singles it was an unexpected surprise, I saw her match against Agnieszka Radwanska , it really gave the feeling at that moment of not creating any expectations beyond the day, and not only because of the attitude during her match, I drive Good emotional, also influencing deep blows, with weight and speed, and even his reaction at the end of the game, made it clear how he had been throughout the game. It gives me that once it was happening round after round, more and more tension was generated, forgetting to enjoy the whole moment more, that seizure, one can say due to lack of experience in those moments, it is clear something can influence, going a little further, the emotional weight influenced much more, Venushe knew how to handle himself much better. We will see throughout the year if there is evidence …
Agnieszka Radwanska: After a very complete first match both emotionally, physically and tennis, even giving the feeling that if I kept that could go far, although emotionally it shows like the rest of women’s tennis, that constancy is an outstanding debt; with Lucic-Baroni , it was much more subdued, without being connected to it, with a feeling of feeling heavy. We will see how the rest of the year goes.
Serena Williams: I have not seen any game of her, more than summaries, really at least she no longer transmits that extreme anguish, which during the last year was shedding by the tracks, generating agony, and little desire to see her play, for being a energy that could give a situation not pleasant to look at, much less being a participant, in fact it led to the loss of number 1, which has now recovered. We will see if it keeps that tension level low or not throughout the year.
Of the women’s doubles, I have not seen anything, I will only say about the winners Bethanie Mattek-Sands / Lucie Safarova , to complete their cycle and they only have Wimbledon left , that the energy between them is spectacular, super positive, happy, they enjoy and make enjoy to Those of us who like and follow tennis, in the end this has its reward.
About the mixed doubles, Abigail Spears and Juan Sebastian Cabal , for both of them it is their first Grand Slam, I can hardly talk about here, because I have barely seen them and I do not know everything, although Cabal in doubles together with Robert Farah , being quite solid generally.
CONCLUSIONS:
- Men’s tennis both for the media, television, this obviously together with the herd of sheep that they generate, are far above women’s tennis.
- An individual sport should not exist such a bestial and incoherent idolatrous inflation, they are in repercussion both for the players themselves, the security of the events, and for the sheep themselves for looking for idols of escape, when their Idol should be within oneself.
- It is time for the ATP, the WTA and the ITF to work in coordination, there are situations that the ITF should leave in the hands of the ATP and the WTA , women’s tennis also needs a certain boost, because the media paint it much poorer than it really is, distorting reality. Apart from many other details in which they should work together without so many Egos .
- Question WTA, do you think that the women’s circuit is more aware of glamor, fame, spotlights, than the profession that offers you everything once you cross certain top lines? . Obviously there has to be time for everything, but with balance, something is not being done right.
- The young men and women players , my feeling is that most of them come out of the box, mentally confused, with the sole objective of becoming “RICH” because that is supposed to give you the happiness you want so much. Apart from being so saturated mentally, that when a requirement arises outside of your scheme, you leave completely, breakage of rackets, dark gestures, out of control tantrums, … and a long etc. Obviously the example of many of the top ones does not help at all, both in boys and girls, they copy details of the ones above. (including street people who also copy). In girls it seems that they come with more grit, desire and professionalism, but in an uproar, on the other hand in boys they come much more lazy, with almost no patience, a lot of ego and completely giddy, out of touch with what life is, and how lucky they are. they are for being there. I generalize because everyone at their level, of course, is going up like this.
- The lordship of the many players, media, ex-players, from what I have lived in Queens and seen at the Australia Open , I will dedicate an article to this, but really, they should be more human and earthly, much more empathic, assertive, … etc … probably with this they would do better in their work, because it does not mean that for them it is a job too, and they would understand better why people like Donald Trump won in the US .
Faithfully with affection,
A lover & respectful of the values and spirits of whatever sport but specially The hidden on tennis .
Remember: