Why not? You teed it up. Ok, I believe Novak, Roger, and Rafa made different parts of the game seem easy- very very different parts. Novak made preparing for shots, racket back, in balance, a skill that every good player knows is more than half the game, look like anyone could do it. Anyone can do it, perhaps half the time, watch Novak and you would think it’s possible to do all the time, in matches, without fail. Roger made hitting whatever shot, in whatever situation, seem not only easy, but actually possible. AND still win competitive matches while doing so. If it was so easy, I would suggest many more pros would be doing it, rather than one gifted player every thirty years or so. And finally, in a nod to last week, Rafa made it look easy to never, ever bail out on a point, whether ahead, behind, match point up, match point down, first round, Wimbledon final. He’s almost one of one, and he still did it into his late thirties, as like a 100 millionaire. That may be the hardest thing to make look easy of them all. :)
This is what fascinates me about Coco Gauff: she looks off-balance and flailing a lot of the time, and yet...Maybe that perpetual scowl on her mother's face makes her afraid to lose.
Now I understand what kind of scope it has to win the sunshine double. I didn’t even realize it up until now what type of effort it requires to compete for 4 weeks in a row.
You could have given the girl with the octopus some bagels on the tennis court 😜😂
So much fun, as always, to vicariously live the life of a pro tennis player. Thanks!
Yet, still so many questions:
1. How do you understand American culture so well that you instinctively correctly applied the unique-to-America baseball warning of "strike one"? The Petko brain, sheesh.
2. Not much interested in how difficult Courier found the Sunshine Double, but, come on: a tiny bit of tea on his own French women perspective?
3. Beach ware failures and lessons learned, please? (Hard to imagine any failures, but I'm sure your self-imposed standards are crazy high!)
Great writing as always Petko. Although yes the emotional and mental effort is such a difficult task, but it certainly helps when your game somehow works for both tournaments (to a certain degree). IW, in this case, was a bit faster this year right? And to the top players, sometimes even small little change can bring wonders. I just hope the tournaments don’t homogenize the courts/surfaces too much.
Fils is in the running for the next Hulk gig. I can't believe the tennis balls don't simply explode when he hits them. Jiri vs. Arthur is actually not that far off from an Avengers movie...!
Why not? You teed it up. Ok, I believe Novak, Roger, and Rafa made different parts of the game seem easy- very very different parts. Novak made preparing for shots, racket back, in balance, a skill that every good player knows is more than half the game, look like anyone could do it. Anyone can do it, perhaps half the time, watch Novak and you would think it’s possible to do all the time, in matches, without fail. Roger made hitting whatever shot, in whatever situation, seem not only easy, but actually possible. AND still win competitive matches while doing so. If it was so easy, I would suggest many more pros would be doing it, rather than one gifted player every thirty years or so. And finally, in a nod to last week, Rafa made it look easy to never, ever bail out on a point, whether ahead, behind, match point up, match point down, first round, Wimbledon final. He’s almost one of one, and he still did it into his late thirties, as like a 100 millionaire. That may be the hardest thing to make look easy of them all. :)
This is what fascinates me about Coco Gauff: she looks off-balance and flailing a lot of the time, and yet...Maybe that perpetual scowl on her mother's face makes her afraid to lose.
Love your writing, and your Big T commentary! I also appreciate how fair and supportive you are to players. Great post.
Now I understand what kind of scope it has to win the sunshine double. I didn’t even realize it up until now what type of effort it requires to compete for 4 weeks in a row.
You could have given the girl with the octopus some bagels on the tennis court 😜😂
So much fun, as always, to vicariously live the life of a pro tennis player. Thanks!
Yet, still so many questions:
1. How do you understand American culture so well that you instinctively correctly applied the unique-to-America baseball warning of "strike one"? The Petko brain, sheesh.
2. Not much interested in how difficult Courier found the Sunshine Double, but, come on: a tiny bit of tea on his own French women perspective?
3. Beach ware failures and lessons learned, please? (Hard to imagine any failures, but I'm sure your self-imposed standards are crazy high!)
Great writing as always Petko. Although yes the emotional and mental effort is such a difficult task, but it certainly helps when your game somehow works for both tournaments (to a certain degree). IW, in this case, was a bit faster this year right? And to the top players, sometimes even small little change can bring wonders. I just hope the tournaments don’t homogenize the courts/surfaces too much.
Goodness, but at first I thought you meant she had a live octopus with her. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We all need to channel Mark Ruffalo's The Incredible Hulk:
“That’s my secret, Captain. I’m always angry.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qq6dQwLh1s)
Fils is in the running for the next Hulk gig. I can't believe the tennis balls don't simply explode when he hits them. Jiri vs. Arthur is actually not that far off from an Avengers movie...!