The Balance of Things

Greetings from Miami

Hello and vamos from Miami, dear friends, the tournament is in its last living stages and I’m sending sweat-drenched regards from my pimpled face. My skin broke out a few days ago and my usual smooth appearance has been replaced by a 15-year-old teenager in the throes of puberty.

Speaking of teenagers, we’ve had two in the Miami Open semifinals. Jakub Mensik, the big-serving, undercut-wearing, blue-eyed menace of a 19-year-old on the men’s side and suave as James Bond when he was Pierce Brosnan (you know I’m right) Alexandra Eala on the women’s side. It’s been a bit of a mess down here but the Miami sun hits different and it’s not only my brain that feels fried.

one of my favourite runs at a tournament this year!

Within days, we had lost als four Indian Wells semifinalists on the men’s side. Is it fair to ask whether the stark difference in conditions between the two tournaments of the sunshine double might be a bit too stark? It’s for other people to find an answer.

What the carnage of losing seed after seed (these are not grapes, gentlemen) has had me think about is the fine and elusive art of balance. How you need equal parts tension and looseness to perform your best. It’s a finely tuned ecosystem and the moment too much tension or too much looseness come into play it collides and collapses like my skin barrier two days ago. What’s so tricky about it is that there’s no formula. There is no correct way. There are as many exact balances in the world as there are people. You can’t just copy Roger Federer and think you’re doing it right. You have to first find your essence and then act accordingly.

Let me give you a few examples. Gael Monfils is very much a loose guy. He’s flexible and lanky, his limbs seem to be attached to his body like the blow-up thingy they put in front of car dealerships. When you think of him, you think of very low to zero tension. Yet, he needs tension to perform. He needs to flex a muscle before he can make it explode. His ideal balance between tension and looseness is lower in tension than for example Jack Draper’s will be. Jack Draper is a hard worker who for his young age seems to have an astonishing command over his emotions. He needs higher tension by nature to function at his best. I don’t think he’d be able to make a ball if he tried to copy Gael Monfils and the same goes for Gael if he tried to emulate Jack.

Roger was lower in tension than Rafa was. And yet both had similar GOAT careers. Anything goes as long as it is strictly modelled after you and your unique traits of personality.

Novak works actively at being in the right balance. I have never seen a person stretch more. He waits for a car stretching. He sits on the grass stretching. He probably watches TV stretching (do we think Novak watches TV?). He’s lowering tension in his body to be at an ideal. But he can also burst out in anger if he needs more of it. He’s constantly adjusting.

What if that is exactly our task in life? If we are tension-filled people (I’m in this photo and I don’t like it) do we need to find the Gael Monfils in us to create a perfect balance? And do people who are very loose need to dig inside themselves for more tension?

nemesis - the goddess of retribution and balance, bizarre choice of things to stand for but more power to her, i guess

You can apply it to almost anything. The person that likes it comfortable and avoids conflict might need to expose themselves to friction to round out their character. And the adrenaline junkie who goes from bungee jumping to sky diving might want to look up some silent retreats. It’s all about balance but balance eludes us.

My hot take of the week is that I think Carlos Alcaraz not being at his very best right now is his current search for the perfect balance. He said in Australia that he wanted to be more consistent over the course of this season and he’s working hard at it. But working hard at something, anything, adds tension and Carlos is the epitome of creative freedom on the court. He has put himself off balance by doing the “right” thing. He will calibrate and he will snap back into it probably sooner than later.

And then I suggest we all run for cover and stay away from windows and glass doors because there is a high chance of a Carlos hurricane coming our way.

puberty comes for the best of us

We all know what too much tension looks like but I’ll give you an example of when somebody has too little of it. At the time when Serena was dominating the WTA tour she was so much better than everybody else that she could afford to not be at her best and still win. Around this time our - her opponents’ - hope was that she would appear on court sluggish and low in energy and we could exploit that. And she often times did, particularly at the beginning stages of tournaments. It felt like she sometimes needed to have a slow start to find friction in the challenge of the score and tension within her. And unfortunately for us, she almost always did.

Things that make me happy:

Running to Chop Suey by System of a Down on the treadmill at full speed while possibly (definitely) yelling DIIIEE out loud has made me tremendously happy and yes, I have asked myself if there are healthier ways for me to deal with overwhelming emotions and I decided that no, there are not but thank you very much for asking. Better help? Better run! I get particularly melodramatic about the why have you forsaken me part but who doesn’t?

Things that make me unhappy:

Miami traffic is L.A. traffic on crack cocaine. There, I said it. Everyone’s looking at their phone, nobody is paying attention but at least they are also going fast. As a German who grew up to learn how to drive on the autobahn and calls Angie Kerber her friend (very fast driver) I pride myself in driving fast and safe. Miami driving might be fast but it certainly is not safe. Just wait until you hit traffic. Then it’s neither.

See you all next week, may you have some flowers on your dining room table!

Yours truly, Andrea