Patience... "Must Have" Virtue For Tennis Pros
The rain and drizzle started wreaking havoc with the 2009 U.S. Open on Thursday night when Rafael Nadal’s quarterfinal match against Fernando Gonzalez was halted by rain and then eventually postponed until Friday. Unfortunately, the rain continued all day Friday
postponing Rafa’s match until Saturday (weather permitting). In addition, the women’s semis featuring Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Caroline Wozniacki and Yanina Wickmayer, scheduled for Friday, were also postponed until Saturday. The tournament will now definitely run into Monday and possibly longer if the Nadal match can’t be completed on Saturday. Phew!
All in all it was a rather frustrating day for the players who had to hang around the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center hoping the clouds would clear long enough for the matches to be played. Tennis players need to have learned patience at an early age to be successful. In practice, young players need to repetitively hit their strokes in order to groove the motions. At tournaments, there is often time spent waiting for the match prior to one’s scheduled match to finish, as well as weather-related delays. With all of the travel required of top pros, there are also plenty of hours spent dealing with travel-related delays.
Players learn to fill the waiting time with reading, games, listening to iPods, eating, stretching, warm-up, napping, etc. The amount of time spent “waiting around” at tennis tournaments is another reason why players are much happier with friends and family in attendance. For example, Nadal and Clijsters passed some of the time on Friday by playing foosball games with their respective friends. It is not the most productive day, but the goal is to spend the time in a relaxing and distracting fashion. Easier said than done when a player is waiting to play a Grand Slam semifinal, but all of these players have had years to practice the art of patience!
All in all it was a rather frustrating day for the players who had to hang around the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center hoping the clouds would clear long enough for the matches to be played. Tennis players need to have learned patience at an early age to be successful. In practice, young players need to repetitively hit their strokes in order to groove the motions. At tournaments, there is often time spent waiting for the match prior to one’s scheduled match to finish, as well as weather-related delays. With all of the travel required of top pros, there are also plenty of hours spent dealing with travel-related delays.
Players learn to fill the waiting time with reading, games, listening to iPods, eating, stretching, warm-up, napping, etc. The amount of time spent “waiting around” at tennis tournaments is another reason why players are much happier with friends and family in attendance. For example, Nadal and Clijsters passed some of the time on Friday by playing foosball games with their respective friends. It is not the most productive day, but the goal is to spend the time in a relaxing and distracting fashion. Easier said than done when a player is waiting to play a Grand Slam semifinal, but all of these players have had years to practice the art of patience!
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