I agree with you to an extent on Muster's "persona" if you will.
In regards to Muster being a good or bad person? I never thought of him as a bad person. He owned Bruguera brutally and would regularly squash the guy's "spirits" and will like a bug, but I never heard Bruguera trash him as not liking him. Just said that he was by far his least favorite opponent because his concentration was so unreal and he felt like he could never match that nor his fitness. If anything, that to me's a compliment, since are the very things Muster prided himself on and imo was the undisputed "best" in those tennis winner's attributes.
I AM, however, well aware of the Ferreira article referenced. Ferreira was if anything one of the more liked and pleasant and gentlemanly and sportsmanlike top players on tour so it probably does say something. This said, he was also imo one of the biggest wastes of all-court talent and God-given cagey athleticism of his generation as well. To me Ferreira did everything really well, his forehand really, really well, but nothing WOW well, and a lot of people think ultimately that's what held him back from ever taking the next step. Imo, he EASILY could have made up for that if he was ever able to channel even just *1/10th* of Muster's FIERY persona.
Muster had the attitude of a Roman gladiator: you're not my friend, this is MY life on the line, so I'm going to have to kill you. And if I don't? Well, ok, so be it, but at least I'll know I *tried to kill you*. Do you get it? It wasn't just a game to Muster, to guys like Muster, Connors, and Lendl; they had to CONVINCE themselves you were out to get them, that you were after their LUNCH MONEY. These are guys who the more they convinced themselves that they hated you and wanted to stop you out like a bug, the better they performed. AND? And like most competitors who reach the top of their profession, they learn to recognize fairly early on what "mindset" results in the most success for them personally. If a person recognizes pretty early on that in order to play his best he has to convince himself that he hates you? Well guess what that person's gonna CONSCIOUSLY try and duplicate that mindstate over and over until it's no longer effective.
That's NORMAL human behavior imo. Why do you think McEnroe still hasn't "grown up" after all these years? It's not because he doesn't know right for wrong, but rather because super brat still thinks this is important and he still wants to WIN a lot more than he'd rather lose. When you still want to WIN, *especially* when you know you're a lot older than your foes, how do you *compensate*? Easy. For McEnroe, staying competitve at his age doesn't necessarily mean he subjects himself to an Agassi/Reyes' like training regime, but rather that when he steps onto the court he makes a secret pact with himself to get ANGRY out there. He *consciously* tells himself it's ok, to still berate an umpire, why? Because he knows that throughout his career, ORCHESTRATING ANGER in the *same exact way that actors do* makes him play better. It's "secret" steroid if you will to combat aging in other words.
He knows that even though he's older than his "peers", if he can "trick" his mind into the far more intense "young buck/touring pro" mindset for the match, then that closes much of the gap between him and his opponents younger legs. In other words, McEnroe WILLS himself to victory on the seniors tour in a way a guy like Muster no longer does or can.
Muster can no longer summon the rage from inside, frankly, because he pretty much stopped caring about the sport entirely once he retired. Some guys like Lendl and Muster, even the stoic "inner" competitors like Borg, once the fire in the belly's been extinguished...it never really comes back. It's weird, because on the seniors tour, one of the very few who still seems to have a GENUINE zest for competing is Rios. You get the sense that he still likes and wants and enjoys challenging his "skills", putting them to the test. That's imo, the biggest reason a lot lof his peers on the seniors tour, say he could and should still be competing on the main tour. You get the sense from many of the seniors, that it wasn't really that they didn't feel like they couldn't compete anymore, but rather that they just didn't *care* enough anymore.
It's a subtle but huge difference at the world level imo. Muster just happened to care MORE than the others during his some might say his short but vulterous despotic reign of terror on tour during his two and a half or so year "prime."
Imo, that was his greatest crime. Muster deep down I never thought was a bad guy. He was, however, more than aware that his tennis success relied on building up that wall of anger around himself, that he knew he wasn't as *naturally* talented as say Bruguera was, but that he realized that despite that he still OWNED him based on what? Based on those very walls. A bull in an isolation tank becomes an angry, distorted, huffing, snorting MAN-BULL...once that gate is opened. The players armed with only a cape and a sword so often had no chance against THAT kind of anger, that *internal* fuel from deep within the coffins, so often simply got overwhelemed by that.
Muster won by overwhelming not just with his potent topspin and power, but also so much more by overwhelming your fight.
Imo, Muster in his "prime" would laugh at Ferreira's comments and snort to himself (or Leitgeb)...haha, and THAT'S why you're a loser bud whose never lived up to his full potential.
