To begin: I am a FEDAL girl. Tennis as art.

Some call us “dilettantes”, or worse – I sniff and attempt to gently remind that it takes one on each side of the net to play. And a master on each side of the net for really good tennis. (Otherwise it can be just a lot of ba**-whacking.)

Whatevs.

Here’s the thing, and I think it was brought home in part today (I won’t remind you; the post is date stamped; you know what today is):

“…but we all know that if Rafa had turned to futbol instead of tennis, Roger would have at least 3 Roland Garros titles by now and this year’s Wimbledon, making his Grand Slam total a Sampras-shattering 16.”

Not necessarily so. I would bet on the Wimbly, certainly — but Rogi lost the French Open at least once before Rafa played it.

And I think in great part (the great mono debate aside — I’m with those who say it takes 10 months to recover; you know when he caught it; you do the math) the problem was the same as it is now: Focus and Concentration.

I have a brilliant friend who breezed all the way from grade through university rarely studying — certainly less than compatriots — because her mind was just that good. Then she went to grad school with a bunch of other brilliants and she actually had to work much harder at it, because the work also got harder.

If your opponents are better, or learning faster, and your game is harder, for whatever reason – “age” (only in sport is 27 talked about like it’s 87), residual illness – then you can’t do what you’ve always done and expect it to be enough to continue to win.

You have to do more — and if you’ve always had focus problems, you may need to learn to yoga (shoot, Andy Murray does it) or to meditate. (Yoga’s also good because it expands lung capacity. Physiological and mental improvement simultaneously. Efficiency. I hear Swiss people like that.)

Yeah, it’s namby-pamby new-agey. But a lot of the Harvard profs do it. Seems to work ok for them.

Enough of a book. You know where I stand on this. If you want to be a team of two, I’ll help elbow the non-discerning aside at the U.S. Open with you.

With respect –
m

Haha! Next time you see a teenage girl desperately looking for Andy, just tell her that you saw him walking by hand in hand with his fiancee a few minutes ago. Wouldn’t I love to see the looks on their faces then.

I apologise for being a bit evil today

Monkeybutt is harsh, my friend! You are a Flat Earther for sure But I think that’s still a few steps up from teenage Andy fan!

Roger playing Andy used to mean a sure win for Feds, so I was completely shocked when I found out that Roddick actually beat Roger in Miami (didn’t get a chance to watch the match, so the outcome came as a total surprise)

Hehe, I’ve always considered ‘hardcore’ Roddick fans as pathetic teenage girls that burst out crying when they found out that he was engaged

I did catch your post on the GOAT debate and it made me realize how big of a Fedophile I actually am. I would consider myself an unconditional but lately I’ve been on the verge of becoming a Flat Earther (which makes me just as pathetic as the teenage Roddick fans I guess, haha!) Anyway, I always tell people who give Nadal credit for whatever he did this time that I don’t care about his ‘great’ achievements, because his face still looks like a monkeybutt. Yes, I know, I need help…

Thanks so much for reading and I’m glad you liked my post.

I too, enjoy those Roddick beat downs, while still liking Roddick as a player and wishing him well (as long as that doesn’t include beating Roger!) I’m not sure if Roddick’s hardcore fans would appreciate my feelings, though – hehe!!!

I’m assuming you caught my post on Fedophiles and the GOAT factor: http://gototennis.blogspot.com/2008/07/fedophile-files-goat-factor.html

Where do you fall on the GOAT question?

I’d be the first to admit that I am a big Fedophile and that I couldn’t stop laughing while reading this, but I disagree with you on one thing:
“Note that Fedophiles rarely have sympathy for Roddick fans.”

I’m actually quite the Roddick fan myself (and I’m not even American, hmm… that’s pretty strange now I come to think of it) but that’s based solely on the fact that Roger owns Roddick’s sorry ass. I just love watching him destroy Roddick, I especially enjoyed the semis of the Australian Open 2007.

But please keep posting more of this, it really made my day!

Definition of the term is good, but I don’t like the sound of it. It’s a bit too close to pedophile and who wants that negative connotation.