The Roger Federer Effect V

Written by: Jason Whittington on 7th September 2011

The Roger Federer Effect V

Roger Federer of Switzerland reacts as he plays Santiago Giraldo of Colombia during their first round match on the first day of the 2011 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA 29 August 2011. The US Open runs through 11 September 2011. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT |

Preparing for tournament play. It’s easy to slap on a RF logoed shirt and think your good to go… certainly I look fantastic, nobody in their right mind would argue with that… it’s the easiest part in the process. The challenging part is gearing up for the moment your match starts. You’ve got search for a tourney that fits your schedule, that’s geographically desirable, accommodates your level or age group and has a respectable number of participants…. plug in your USTA number and a credit card, hit a button and WAH LA! ENTERED.

Now you have to pace your play leading up to your match…you don’t want to over play and risk being burnt by commencement time and you also don’t want to go in too cold. You need to be match tough without being over extended. As the tournament weekend approaches your constantly drawn back to the tourney website to see if the draw has been posted. Even though you have no idea who your opponent is you have to see who it’s going to be. If they’re a seasoned player you can click the name and see a 12 month match history. All a part of building the necessary prep that leads to the unnecessary stress that comes with tournament play.

Finally… match play weekend is here and my opponent has shown up on time. We’re ushered to the court by the USTA wondering umpire. I go through my normal on-court routine, shades to glasses, flip flops to shoes, wristband, choose 1 of 3 rackets and elect to receive. We both feel each other out during the warm up until it’s go time. The level of stress during tournament play versus a casual match play is night and day, in fact hardly even a comparison, both physically and mentally. During tournament play you run harder and faster, there’s an extra dose of adrenaline that kicks in…the challenge is the ability to mentally manage that physical overdrive while focusing on not over focusing on the moment at hand that would ideally be executed without any focus at all and just allowed to happen. Sound stressful? It is and when you win, you come back the next day and the next day to do it again. It clearly takes a withdraw from the body.

Now consider my story (remember this is always about me) to what Roger Federer has done for so many years at the highest level that the game can be played, virtually no injuries ever! It’s absolutely astonishing. Djokivic is getting a truncated taste of what Federer’s history has been holding court. Having to play more matches which means more stress mentally and physically than any of the other players. His body let him down in the finals of Cincinnati. This fact occurred well within the first year of Novak moving into the #1 world ranking. I’m not a Djokivic hater, he’s a tremendous athlete and he’s seeing and hitting the ball better than anyone else on the tour right now. He’s WORKED very hard and is trying to manage the enormous amount of stress that has earned him the #1 ranking. Even with the amount of confidence he exudes on the outside, the body is still going to leave a deposit after every tournament. I don’t think Federer really knows what it’s like to work to become the greatest playing example of the game. I’m not saying he hasn’t put in the time, I’m simply saying from the moment he discovered a racket he had an immediate almost unnatural advantage. That similar to one of those kid’s you see on 60 Minutes that picks up a musical instrument and instantly unleashes an almost preset pattern from within that just needed an external device to unlock. So the next time your watching don’t take note of the score, just sit back, relax, take it in and enjoy the history of art happening in the moment

By the way Federer won his opening match at this years US Open against Giraldo 6-4, 6-3,6-2. And because this is all about me, I thought you should know I ended up winning that tournament I spoke of earlier. So congratulations to both of us…not just him.