One of the best articles I've read. I normally don't care for Bodo too much but this is good writing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Federer is a human card trick. You know, the kind where you're
asked to pick a card and remember it, and then the deck is shuffled,
cut, flung in the air and picked up again. Then, after you count 11
cards forward, three back, and flip the next card -- bingo, it's the
one you originally selected. You wonder: Hey, how'd he do that?
A month ago, after David Nalbandian beat Federer in back-to-back weeks
in important Masters Series tournaments, many were asking, "What's
wrong with Roger?" The answer was simple: Shut up and keeping counting
cards. We aren't done yet. Ellipses: ... And you know which card finally
turned up yesterday? How can that danged trick always work?
The answer, as with card tricks, is pretty simple, and based on cold
logic and simple mathematics. Roger Federer is -- by far -- the most
consistent tennis player on the planet, an attribute that doesn't
always get its due because there are sexier things to accuse him of
being (like paranormal, fabulously metrosexual, and inexplicably
talented). But Federer's results appear to flow from a frame of mind
that every coach at every level tries to drill into every student:
Forget the occasion, forget the opponent, forget history, personal and
otherwise. Just play the game as best you can and the rest will take
care of that.
I guarantee you, nobody read less into Nalbandian's two wins over
Federer, or David Ferrer's blazing form last week, than Roger Federer.
Of course, a lot of players try to follow the advice above, but they
don't have Federer's tools. So poor execution starts them unraveling,
and pretty soon the opponent, history, some idiot heckler -- it all
rushes in and they get themselves all tied up in mental knots. Federer
is saved the indignity of that experience by his daily level of
execution -- his consistency. That game is based on lethal offense and
the ability to go from defense to offense better than anyone in
tennis, but perhaps most of all, it does this: It builds ramparts
around Federer's emotions and psyche.
The only place where this doesn't appear to work is at Roland Garros,
because while Federer's consistency of execution is insanely high, it
has never been quite high enough on clay against Rafael Nadal. And so
we get our annual peek at Roger impersonating a plain old tennis
player, being bombarded by ordinary frustrations, doubts and
indecisions.
Roger's biggest ally next year, as he sets out to shatter Pete
Sampras's all-time Grand Slam singles title record (14) will not be
his forehand or serve, it will be his general consistency. It will be
his protective barrier against pressure, and his shield against
players whose fantasies of catching Federer on a rare off day will
once again be shattered five or six games into any given match. That's
what Federer does to people -- just ask David Ferrer.
Consistency isn't sexy; but it sure is deadly.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Federer is a human card trick. You know, the kind where you're
asked to pick a card and remember it, and then the deck is shuffled,
cut, flung in the air and picked up again. Then, after you count 11
cards forward, three back, and flip the next card -- bingo, it's the
one you originally selected. You wonder: Hey, how'd he do that?
A month ago, after David Nalbandian beat Federer in back-to-back weeks
in important Masters Series tournaments, many were asking, "What's
wrong with Roger?" The answer was simple: Shut up and keeping counting
cards. We aren't done yet. Ellipses: ... And you know which card finally
turned up yesterday? How can that danged trick always work?
The answer, as with card tricks, is pretty simple, and based on cold
logic and simple mathematics. Roger Federer is -- by far -- the most
consistent tennis player on the planet, an attribute that doesn't
always get its due because there are sexier things to accuse him of
being (like paranormal, fabulously metrosexual, and inexplicably
talented). But Federer's results appear to flow from a frame of mind
that every coach at every level tries to drill into every student:
Forget the occasion, forget the opponent, forget history, personal and
otherwise. Just play the game as best you can and the rest will take
care of that.
I guarantee you, nobody read less into Nalbandian's two wins over
Federer, or David Ferrer's blazing form last week, than Roger Federer.
Of course, a lot of players try to follow the advice above, but they
don't have Federer's tools. So poor execution starts them unraveling,
and pretty soon the opponent, history, some idiot heckler -- it all
rushes in and they get themselves all tied up in mental knots. Federer
is saved the indignity of that experience by his daily level of
execution -- his consistency. That game is based on lethal offense and
the ability to go from defense to offense better than anyone in
tennis, but perhaps most of all, it does this: It builds ramparts
around Federer's emotions and psyche.
The only place where this doesn't appear to work is at Roland Garros,
because while Federer's consistency of execution is insanely high, it
has never been quite high enough on clay against Rafael Nadal. And so
we get our annual peek at Roger impersonating a plain old tennis
player, being bombarded by ordinary frustrations, doubts and
indecisions.
Roger's biggest ally next year, as he sets out to shatter Pete
Sampras's all-time Grand Slam singles title record (14) will not be
his forehand or serve, it will be his general consistency. It will be
his protective barrier against pressure, and his shield against
players whose fantasies of catching Federer on a rare off day will
once again be shattered five or six games into any given match. That's
what Federer does to people -- just ask David Ferrer.
Consistency isn't sexy; but it sure is deadly.
