Milos Raonic, Petra Kvitova and Alexandr Dolgopolov Channel Confidence
Three tennis players who made major news at the 2011 Australian Open have continued their fine form in recent weeks. Twenty year old Canadian, Milos Raonic, won the San Jose tournament defeating Fernando Verdasco in the final. Fellow twenty year old
(although she’ll turn twenty-one in early March), tall Czech lefty, Petra Kvitova, won her second title of 2011 and the third of her career beating newly (re)crowned Number One and 2011 Australian Open champion, Kim Clijsters, in the final at Paris. Finally, Ukrainian twenty-two year old, Alexandr Dolgopolov reached the semis in Brazil.
Dolgopolov, who has yet to win a title, and is the oldest of the three players, is at a career-high ranking of 29th. Kvitova, who had her break-out performance when she reached the semis at Wimbledon last year, is also now at a career-high ranking of 14th. Finally, towering six foot five inch Raonic has also reached a career-high ranking of 59th with his first Tour title.
All three of these players have shown that they have the talent to challenge top players. For a singer or musician, a good "performance" is about relating to the material and to the audience in the moment aka "connection" while in sports, "performance" is about trusting your instincts in the moment aka "confidence’. It may sound so clichéd and simplistic, but when a player has “that belief” then he/she trusts his/her shots in the key moments. In fact, the opposite seems to be happening for Roger Federer, as great as he still is, at times in matches during the past couple years. The strong post-Australian Open results of Raonic, Dolgopolov and Kvitova illustrates what a little confidence can do in making the difference between pulling out tight matches.
Dolgopolov, who has yet to win a title, and is the oldest of the three players, is at a career-high ranking of 29th. Kvitova, who had her break-out performance when she reached the semis at Wimbledon last year, is also now at a career-high ranking of 14th. Finally, towering six foot five inch Raonic has also reached a career-high ranking of 59th with his first Tour title.
All three of these players have shown that they have the talent to challenge top players. For a singer or musician, a good "performance" is about relating to the material and to the audience in the moment aka "connection" while in sports, "performance" is about trusting your instincts in the moment aka "confidence’. It may sound so clichéd and simplistic, but when a player has “that belief” then he/she trusts his/her shots in the key moments. In fact, the opposite seems to be happening for Roger Federer, as great as he still is, at times in matches during the past couple years. The strong post-Australian Open results of Raonic, Dolgopolov and Kvitova illustrates what a little confidence can do in making the difference between pulling out tight matches.
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