A TROPHY FOR LEARNING NEVER TO THROW HIS RACQUET AGAIN IN FRUSTRATION






I don’t watch tennis matches much. But, I get inspired by the great tennis legends a lot. True to what I said, I did not watch yesterday’s Wimbledon Finals between Roger Federer and Marin Cilic… but, I have been hugely inspired by Roger Federer on winning his eighth Wimbledon title, which makes it his nineteenth Grand Slam… Nobody in tennis history has done it so big and at such advanced age… Federer has done it at 36!




I don’t understand a lot about the tennis game. But, that doesn’t prevent me from admiring its legends… I grew up admiring Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe… These legends were two of a kind – extremely opposites in their temperaments… Bjorn Borg looked like a sage, full of poise… while John McEnroe looked like a volcano, full of lava! But, I loved them both… The same way, there were these two women legends… Chris Evert Lloyd and Martina Navratilova… completely with contrast temperaments… Chris was beautiful and serene… Matina was manly and aggressive… and, yes, I admired them both, alike!

Winning a Wimbledon trophy is the ultimate dream of any tennis player… It takes tons of grit and patience to play on this court, leave alone winning the trophy. If so, how would you describe what Roger Federer has just done at 36… for the eighth time at Wimbledon?

The other day, I was reading a Post shared by Goalcast where Federer was speaking about his transformation from a volatile person on the court to a composed one… Here is the Post:

ROGER FEDERER – GIVE YOUR BEST

Tennis star Roger Federer shares his story of personal transformation, and urges us to never stop improving and growing, no matter what…

Transcript:
“It’s enough. I can’t stand it watching me throwing rackets and embarrass myself in front of thousands of people in a live stadium, so I tried to change, had quite a transformation from a screaming, racket throwing, swearing kind of brat on the tennis court to this calm guy today. It’s very important to sort of move on. And I think also losses make you stronger. It’s important to learn out of those mistakes and then you become better and the better player, you work harder. A light goes up in your head, you go like, ‘You know what? I think I understand now what I need to improve.’

“I always questioned myself in the best of times, even when I was world number one for many, many weeks and months in a row, at certain times during the year I said, ‘What can I improve? What do I need to change?’ Because if you don’t do anything or you just do the same thing over and over again, you stay the same, and staying the same means going backwards. It’s important for me to actually hear criticism sometimes because I think that’s what makes me a better player and that means someone’s questioning me who really cares about me, and I think that’s really important in the business world as well.

“Because if you never set yourself goals, you can never question yourself, because you just move from one to the next and you say, ‘It’s going to be okay.’ When things are going great, what more can I do? How much better can I become? How much harder can I train? Almost every time I step on the court today I can maybe rewrite history in some shape or form. And all I can do is give my best. Then it’s going to be fine, regardless of the outcome.”







Thus, to me, it is not about winning at Wimbledon even if it is for the eighth time and even if it is at the age of 36. To me, it is about learning to become a better human being – a lot composed and compassionate, a lot humble and grateful – as you keep winning your trophies in life. After all, all records are meant to be broken, you see… Yes, soon, someone else will break this one, too!

Roger Federer had won his seventh Wimbledon title in 2012, that was five years ago. Today, I was thinking about the five-year time-span that he took to make a comeback… One of the many things – perhaps the most important one – the legend had to do was to learn never to throw his racquet again in frustration!


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Internet
Videos: YouTube

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