Wednesday 15 November 2017

'GOTTA LOVE IT'

The current year ending Championships in London have proven beyond doubt that there is only a 'whisker' separating a win from a loss amongst the best players in the World.
The 'easiest' match so far has been a 6-4, 7-6 win to Roger Federer over Jack Sock who is currently playing a brand of tennis that can only be described as 'cavalier'.
There has been a total of six matches played in the singles and five of them have gone to three sets. Of the six doubles matches played three have gone the distance, two of them 10-8 in the third set super tie breaker and another 10-5. The other scores have been 4 and 6, 6 and 4 plus a 6 and 6 result that took a rather amazing 12 match points to close the deal.
I recall these same championships several years ago and it was a fizzer of epic proportions, many one sided matches and it didn't really make sense.
It was as though the 'apprentices' were completely overawed by the masters of the game.
The times have changed.
Jack Sock is the standout.
I recall something that the American said after winning in Paris just recently and I found it to be rather fascinating. 
Sock said that he was playing with 'House Money'. Anyone who knows anything about gambling will tell you that if you have a win then you relax, trust me, I used to punt, I know the feeling well.
'House Money' is the terminology that many use when they scrape through a tight one, so to speak, a match that gives you a feeling of freedom when you play your next match because in all reality you quite possibly shouldn't be there.
In Paris, Sock came back from 1-5 in the third against Kyle Edmund in the second round and his game loosened up to such a degree that he won the tournament and secured the final position in the elite eight man field in London.
A 6-4, 7-6 loss to Roger Federer is nothing to be ashamed of as that was a match that many would be totally overawed by, not so with Jack Sock.
He is still playing with 'house money', as free as a bird, nothing to lose, everything to gain. Perhaps we should all play with that same feeling of freedom, after all do we really have anything to lose when we play tennis apart from maybe an ego deflation ?
I love some of the terminologies that tennis professionals come up with but this one by Jack Sock would have to be right up there with the best of them.
I remember once a player saying 'I didn't lose, he beat me'. 
Put those two sayings into perspective.
Tennis, a thinking mans game.........

No comments:

Post a Comment