Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was talking about how a tennis match is won between the ears as much as between the lines.
“My game, you know, is very good when I have nothing in my head, when I just play my game,” he said on Monday after defeating Mardy Fish in five sets at the US Open.
Off to the side, a photographer was working away, his camera’s motor drive making a sound as if crickets were invading the room. The noise caused other journalists to turn their heads in his direction, but Tsonga kept talking.
Photo: Reuters
He said that being “really, really strong in the head,” as he put it, meant he was not thinking “about other things like the wind, people in the box.”
Tsonga’s voice trailed off as he joined the others in looking at the crouching photographer.
He smiled and added: “All this stuff.”
Some players in the US Open draw have faster serves than others or more penetrating ground strokes or better touch at the net. However, at the elite level, those differences are negligible. Those who succeed are the ones who are really, really strong in the head.
“Physically, there is not much difference between No. 78 in the world and Nos. 2, 3, 1, 5,” said Novak Djokovic, the top-ranked men’s player, who has lost two matches all year. “Everybody’s working hours and hours on the court.”
“It’s a mental ability to handle the pressure, to play well at the right moments and that’s why I think there is a certain difference with top-10 players,” he added.
Djokovic’s fourth-round victory against Alexandr Dolgopolov, the No. 22 seed, was a case in point. Extended to a tiebreaker in the first set, he weathered four set points by Dolgopolov and prevailed, 16-14, when Dolgopolov hit a forehand out after a long rally.
“I think mental strength you get over the years playing on the tour, getting experience and using that experience in a right way,” said Djokovic, who turned professional in 2003.
The brain, like a muscle, gets stronger when pushed to the point of failure. In Rafa, his recently published autobiography, Rafael Nadal articulated what becomes patently obvious to anyone at the US Open who watches the parade of players hitting on the practice courts.
“If you watch the No. 10 player in the world and the No. 500 in training, you won’t necessarily be able to tell who is higher up in the rankings,” Nadal wrote. “Without the pressure of competition, they’ll move and hit the ball much the same way.”
Nobody at this US Open has shown more staying power than Samantha Stosur, whose 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (5/7) 7-5 victory against Nadia Petrova was the longest women’s match in tournament history, clocking in at 3 hours, 16 minutes. She needed another two-and-a-half hours to dispatch Maria Kirilenko in the fourth round.
Their match included a 32-point tiebreaker in the second set, the longest for women in tournament history. Stosur came out on the losing end in the tiebreaker, but stormed back to advance, 6-2, 6-7 (15/17), 6-3, outlasting her reputation for being physically buff, but mentally fragile.
“I haven’t always been known for my competitiveness out there, to really fight hard,” Stosur said. “It’s definitely very rewarding. I know now I can do it.”
Which comes first, self-belief or success?
Fish made the effort to get physically fit and found that the discipline required to lose 15kg carried over to the court. He sticks to his game plans the way he does to his diet and has diligently pursued intermediate goals, which is how he found himself the top-ranked American, at eighth overall, in the US Open.
In the fourth round, Fish ran into Tsonga, who did a better job of ignoring the gusty winds, the loud crowd and the cumulative fatigue of another endless summer. He removed the clutter from his head, clearing his path to success.
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