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Wimbledon

kishman

Well-Known Member
Apr 22, 2005
10,575
771
Not necessarily HL. Tsonga just broke and is now 5-4 up in the 3rd set.
 

Hoddle_Ledge

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2005
9,999
5,493
Yea spoke to soon. They are both diving all over the place...and with a smile. £10 you won't see one smile in the next match.
 

kishman

Well-Known Member
Apr 22, 2005
10,575
771
And now Djokovic broke. There goes my chance of winning 660 quid.
 

kishman

Well-Known Member
Apr 22, 2005
10,575
771
Djokovic has broke. And is serving for a 3-0 lead in the 4th set. Why is Tsonga making my life so difficult? :lol:
 

Hoddle_Ledge

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2005
9,999
5,493
Far too many unforced errors from Tsonga. Djoko just gets everything. I'd tip him to beat Nadal in the final.
 

CosmicHotspur

Better a wag than a WAG
Aug 14, 2006
51,069
22,383
I like Tsonga but he isn't quite up to the same standard as the top few players.

Murray holding his own thank goodness. Fairly evenly matched at present and I did think we could have tie-breaks with these two.
 
Jun 9, 2005
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I read a really interesting article last week on the secret to winning a tennis match. Was it a devastating serve? we were asked. Pulverising groundstrokes? Doggedness?

Novak Djokovic puts it down to one thing:
''Everybody's hitting the ball well. Everybody is physically fit and practising for hours and hours every day. But the bottom line is that this is a mental game. The winner is the one who wins the mental battle.''

Dr Steve Bull, who is Team GB's psychologist, says:
''The mindset of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal is incredible. Federer is simply unflappable and full of self-belief. Beating someone psychologically when they're that positive is very difficult. You can't through them off their game, but they can easily throw you of yours.''

Damian Hughes (sports psychologist): ''Murray's mental game is not strong. He's all over the place. You see him getting frustrated and retaining emotions. He's plays one shot and you can see he's still thinking about the shot he missed several minutes ago. Federer draws a line in the sand after each shot. Murray can't do that.''

David Brown (Academy Of The Sporting Mind): ''Murray chokes. He behaves like a fifteen year old, not a world-beating champion. He can be sulky, yet off court he is jolly and friendly. This is odd and indicates that something is wrong with his mindset. He shouldn't be that vulnerable.''

Murray had a makeable shot yesterday to go a set and a break up. He missed it and everything that these guys have said became clear for all to see; Nadal eventually held serve and Murray lost seven games in a row. It wasn't that he bottled it. It was simply that he is mentally and emotionally incapable of moving past that shot, ie., he was thinking about it for the next thirty minutes.

People wonder why we don't produce winning tennis players and they put much of it down to the elite nature of the sport. Golf's elitist, and yet we produce loads of excellent players. The true reason - and it's the same reason that stops our national football team, who have admitted they play with fear - is because we don't prepare people mentally. When filming a Nike commercial in 2007, Federer made the copywriters change the line he says from 'I hate losing' to 'I love winning'. When asked to explain, he said: ''One is positive, it's about wanting to be the best. The other is about the fear of being the worst. I'm positive.''

Nadal, Djokovic and Federer have apparently grown up fully aware of (and trained in) the psychology of their sport. Andy Murray has never been taught this. How do I know? Because of this alarming fact. For all the tens of millions pumped into the LTA each year, for all the effort and focus put into facilities, equipment, training, PR and the like, the LTA employs just one psychologist. And that role is a part-time role. That explains why, when asked how Murray can make future finals, Tim Henman said: ''He's just gotta keep doing what he's doing and improve his forehand.'' John McEnroe didn't say anything. He just pointed to his head.
 
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