Nadal: Neither choke nor panic
I don’t know how many of you can remember anything about Women’s 1993 Wimbledon final, but there was something very unique about that final. Jana Novotna lost the first set 7-6, but she was quick to come back by beating Steffi Graff 6-1 in the second set. She continued her performance in the third set as well and she was leading 4-1 and serving at 40-30. This meant she was one point from winning this game and five points from winning Wimbledon. Even Steffi had no distant idea at this point of the game that she will end up winning the third set by 6-4.
This tells us that human beings are prone to failures under pressure as Novotana had the pressure of playing against 4 time Wimbledon champion Steffi. What’s the word to describe this – choke or panic? Both words sound similar but are quite different. When u choke, u start thinking too much and you can’t focus on ur goal. When u panic, u think too little and u don’t know what to do. But either way you end up as a looser. Therefore, one should neither choke nor panic under pressure.
I was reminded of all this when I read this news article today.
http://in.rediff.com/sports/2005/jun/04french3.htm
which starts as “Justine Henin-Hardenne picked up her second French Open title on Saturday in the most one-sided final in 17 years, beating French bundle of ticks and twitches Mary Pierce 6-1, 6-1”.
Loosing in a final match in 62 minutes and that too someone who had a smooth go at Roland Garros. This is how she won the quarterfinal and semifinal in style.
“Mary Pierce delighted her home fans by crushing Russian Elena Likhovtseva 6-1, 6-1”
“France's Mary Pierce thrilled the Paris fans by crushing world number one Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals of the French Open on Tuesday.”
For me, this might have been the same case of choking or panic for a 30 year old under the pressure of playing a 23 year old who has won 23 consecutive times before the French Open Final.
Now the men’s final to go on sunday, I hope the way u have played Nadal (19 year old boy from Spain making his debut at Roland Garros), u deserve to win the tile so Nadal: Neither choke or panic in the final against Mariano Puerta.
This tells us that human beings are prone to failures under pressure as Novotana had the pressure of playing against 4 time Wimbledon champion Steffi. What’s the word to describe this – choke or panic? Both words sound similar but are quite different. When u choke, u start thinking too much and you can’t focus on ur goal. When u panic, u think too little and u don’t know what to do. But either way you end up as a looser. Therefore, one should neither choke nor panic under pressure.
I was reminded of all this when I read this news article today.
http://in.rediff.com/sports/2005/jun/04french3.htm
which starts as “Justine Henin-Hardenne picked up her second French Open title on Saturday in the most one-sided final in 17 years, beating French bundle of ticks and twitches Mary Pierce 6-1, 6-1”.
Loosing in a final match in 62 minutes and that too someone who had a smooth go at Roland Garros. This is how she won the quarterfinal and semifinal in style.
“Mary Pierce delighted her home fans by crushing Russian Elena Likhovtseva 6-1, 6-1”
“France's Mary Pierce thrilled the Paris fans by crushing world number one Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals of the French Open on Tuesday.”
For me, this might have been the same case of choking or panic for a 30 year old under the pressure of playing a 23 year old who has won 23 consecutive times before the French Open Final.
Now the men’s final to go on sunday, I hope the way u have played Nadal (19 year old boy from Spain making his debut at Roland Garros), u deserve to win the tile so Nadal: Neither choke or panic in the final against Mariano Puerta.
posted by Prabhat Kumar at
6:08 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home