DATE:10 September 2000VENUE:Arthur ashe stadium ,Flushing Meadows New York
EVENT :US OPEN FINAL
PLAY MAKERS:Pete Sampras and Marat Safin
SPECTATORS:23,000 plus the American President Bill Clinton
EXPECTED OUTCOME:Pete sampras to win his 14th grand slam in singles
But every one discounted the fact that the 20 year old something Russian was also playing the match ,and contrary to everyone's belief that sampras would have a stroll in the park ,the Russian completely annihilated the the great American in the presence of the home crowd 6-4 ,6-3 ,6-2 in 1 hour and 40 mins ,and a star was born .
After the match the great sampras had praise for his opponent as quoted by him "He passed and returned my serve better than anyone I've ever played" and "He reminded me of when I was 19 and came here and won it for the first time" .Safin had played a spectacular match with the best ever tennis that any one could have imagined his ground strokes had the raw power of Agassi and the finesse of Sampras,Marat reminded of the the player Pete was in 1989 when at the age of 19 years he became the youngest to player to win the men's singles by defeating his great adversary for many years to come Andre Agassi.
Everyone saw a great tennis star in the making who would dominate it after the sampras era had ended ,but it was not to be so ,so what went wrong for the Russian??
Though everyone saw the talent of the man in the game of tennis but no one saw the mercurial nature of the man that was to follow ,he became well known for his emotional outburst during matches where he would smash his rackets every time a call went against him ,this roller coaster ride of emotions did not let him focus on his game and as a result of which he slided down the tennis rankings in the subsequent years,subsequent series of injuries in 2003 also did not help his cause or one could say he himself pressed the SELF DESTRUCT BUTTON .
This story highlights the fact that though one may be talented a lot but if he is not able to channelize his efforts it ultimately results in mediocre performance from the individual ,and this fact is more emphasized in the filed of sports ,as the great SUNIL GAVASAKAR had said "Cricket is played between the two ears more than on the field" All the great champions that we have witnessed so far are more mentally stronger than their peers though they may not be as talented as other.For instance Steven Waugh was so strong temperamentally it overshadowed his natural talent ,who can ever forget the hundred he made against england in 2001 Ashes on one leg and the words he said to gibbs when he dropped his catch in 199 world cup "You just dropped the World Cup " .as opposed to players like named Vinod Kambli who were talented but could not live upto it because he wasn't mentally strong.
Coming back to tennis from where i had started ,there have been instances where players have achieved less because they lost their focus ,for example the great JOHN MCENROE could have won more titals but he did not because he always spent his time arguing more than playing as opposed to the cool BJORN BORG who won 11 grand slam titles as he was mentally more tougher than him.
In The present Era to the great champion ROGER FEDERER is becoming is because of his temperament which supports his abundance talent. when asked about how he always won and the hunger that kept him going his reply was "As a child i used to cry a lot when i lost a match ,so the best way was to win every match that i played so that i would not cry again" It is this attitude that separates him from the rest of the field,though safin may match him for talent as he did in 2005 Australian open by defeating him but he does not have the temperament and focus to be consistent as him.
The willingness to succeed at every occasion can be best summed by SHANE WARNE who despite his off field controversies always wanted to win and give his best as he said to IAN HEALY in an interview "It's all about winning mate" and it truly is.
After the match the great sampras had praise for his opponent as quoted by him "He passed and returned my serve better than anyone I've ever played" and "He reminded me of when I was 19 and came here and won it for the first time" .Safin had played a spectacular match with the best ever tennis that any one could have imagined his ground strokes had the raw power of Agassi and the finesse of Sampras,Marat reminded of the the player Pete was in 1989 when at the age of 19 years he became the youngest to player to win the men's singles by defeating his great adversary for many years to come Andre Agassi.
Everyone saw a great tennis star in the making who would dominate it after the sampras era had ended ,but it was not to be so ,so what went wrong for the Russian??
Though everyone saw the talent of the man in the game of tennis but no one saw the mercurial nature of the man that was to follow ,he became well known for his emotional outburst during matches where he would smash his rackets every time a call went against him ,this roller coaster ride of emotions did not let him focus on his game and as a result of which he slided down the tennis rankings in the subsequent years,subsequent series of injuries in 2003 also did not help his cause or one could say he himself pressed the SELF DESTRUCT BUTTON .
This story highlights the fact that though one may be talented a lot but if he is not able to channelize his efforts it ultimately results in mediocre performance from the individual ,and this fact is more emphasized in the filed of sports ,as the great SUNIL GAVASAKAR had said "Cricket is played between the two ears more than on the field" All the great champions that we have witnessed so far are more mentally stronger than their peers though they may not be as talented as other.For instance Steven Waugh was so strong temperamentally it overshadowed his natural talent ,who can ever forget the hundred he made against england in 2001 Ashes on one leg and the words he said to gibbs when he dropped his catch in 199 world cup "You just dropped the World Cup " .as opposed to players like named Vinod Kambli who were talented but could not live upto it because he wasn't mentally strong.
Coming back to tennis from where i had started ,there have been instances where players have achieved less because they lost their focus ,for example the great JOHN MCENROE could have won more titals but he did not because he always spent his time arguing more than playing as opposed to the cool BJORN BORG who won 11 grand slam titles as he was mentally more tougher than him.
In The present Era to the great champion ROGER FEDERER is becoming is because of his temperament which supports his abundance talent. when asked about how he always won and the hunger that kept him going his reply was "As a child i used to cry a lot when i lost a match ,so the best way was to win every match that i played so that i would not cry again" It is this attitude that separates him from the rest of the field,though safin may match him for talent as he did in 2005 Australian open by defeating him but he does not have the temperament and focus to be consistent as him.
The willingness to succeed at every occasion can be best summed by SHANE WARNE who despite his off field controversies always wanted to win and give his best as he said to IAN HEALY in an interview "It's all about winning mate" and it truly is.
1 comment:
Man Man..SAFIN is ma fav player...but yes he is one mystery..He seems to destruct himself...
But I still like him...:)
NIce post man!
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