The Tennis History Game
Many pro tennis players have long histories with their fellow tour players, often dating back to junior days. For example, there was an eerie history at play during the round of 16 match at the 2008 French Open between Maria Sharapova and Dinara Safina. Two years ago at Roland Garros in the round of 16, Sharapova was up 5-1 in the third set against Safina and ended up losing. On Monday, Sharapova lost a 5-2 second set
advantage against Safina and lost a match point en route to a three set loss. On Tuesday, Australian Open champion, Novak Djokovic played his first pro match against Ernests Gulbis, a talented Latvian, who trained with Djokovic for a couple years in Germany at Nikki Pilic’s academy in Munich. They clearly played many times in practice, as well as spending some off court hours together. Therefore, Djokovic, the current World Number Three, had all the pressure on his shoulders in their quarterfinal match. In the men’s quarterfinals, Roger Federer plays someone he has known and played against since they were juniors, i.e. Fernando Gonzalez. In this match-up, Federer has won 10 of their 11 pro matches although Gonzalez won the last match they played. Federer also has a fascinating rivalry with Argentine, David Nalbandian, who has beaten Federer several times as both a junior and a pro. Federer now leads their pro rivalry 9-8. The past matches and sometimes off-court history between players undoubtedly enters the players’ minds either before or during matches. As they say, history often repeats itself and is therefore yet another mental challenge on the pro tennis tour.
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