The Real Ordeal Post

A Lesson in Longevity

A tennis player’s ATP career isn’t all that long in the grand scheme of things.  Even though many start in their late teens, by the time they reach the age of 30 we consider them as “old”.  Or if not old, then at least on their way out of the sport.  The days of someone like Jimmy Connors making the semifinals of the US Open at the age of 39 are long gone.

This is why the recent news that Rafael Nadal has been forced to withdraw from the US Open  is so troubling.  At just 26 years old, Nadal seems to be battling tendonitis in his knees.  Part of the problem is that playing tennis at that level certainly does take a toll on the body, the other issue is the way Nadal plays the game could be a contributing factor as well.

One of the main reasons Nadal is so popular with the fans is his style of play.  He works extremely hard and leaves everything out on the court.  While endearing yourself to the people is important, sometimes making smart decisions is more crucial.  For instance, Nadal seems to play every point like it’s his last.  That strategy shows how bad you want to win, but it can also take a lot out of you physically.  There are some drop shots or smashes you just can’t go for if you want to conserve your energy for later in a match.  Sometimes working smart is better than working hard.

Take Kei Nishikori’s fourth round victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at this year’s Australian Open as an extreme example.  Nishikori grabbed an early break of serve in the fifth set of a grueling match where the heat was starting to wear both players down.  Nishikori simply needed to hold his service games in the final set to secure the win.  So what did he do? Well, to conserve energy he didn’t go all out when Tsonga was serving.  If the ball was hit in his vicinity then he would play it back.  If not, he would almost concede the points to Tsonga.  The likelihood of him breaking Tsonga’s serve at that point in the match was slim, so those games weren’t important.  His service games were.

Even though this example only pertained to one match, it is the mentality that is important here.  With Nadal’s mindset you would probably never see him implement a strategy like this.  The cumulative effect of what Nishikori did can have a profound effect on how long a player plays.

Roger Federer for instance is still going strong now that he has entered his thirties.  Federer seems to win a lot of points effortlessly, meanwhile you often see someone like Nadal getting the same results, only having to work much harder to get them.  One thing I have noticed about Federer’s game over the last few years, for better or for worse, is that he has become more aggressive to try to shorten the points.  Realizing you may not be able to rally as long as you used to against some of the younger up and coming players, means trying to go for winners quicker.  Unfortunately this can lead to more unforced errors as well.  Take Federer’s win against Andy Murray at this year’s Wimbledon final.  Federer actually had more unforced errors than Murray in the match (38-25), but he also had more winners (62-46).  Trying to shorten points may lead to more unforced errors, but it may also allow Federer to play at a high level for a few extra years.

The toll playing a sport at the highest level can take on someone is not just limited to tennis of course.  If we look at the National Hockey League and a guy like Nicklas Lidstrom, it is clear that the way you play can lead to longevity.  Lidstrom just recently retired at the age of 42, but probably could have played another five years if he wanted.  Lidstrom’s ability to play the game at an elite level with such control and minimal physicality, certainly played a role in extending his career.  On the other hand, someone like Chris Pronger is looking at retirement because of a slew of injuries, mainly post-concussion issues, due to his rugged nature.

It is important to note that there is no right or wrong way of doing things.  Sometimes athletes only know one approach to get the best results.  They are not concerned with how long they play, but rather getting the absolute most out of the time that they have the opportunity to do so.  I recently saw an interview with Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger where he said if his career ended tomorrow he would be ok with it. He went on to say that he has no plans to change the way he plays by avoiding hits just to add a little extra time onto his career.

There is something special about watching the Nadals, Prongers, and Roethlisbergers of the world compete in the sports they have such passion for, we just can’t expect them to be around forever.

Roger Federer: A Different Kind of Greatness

If you followed men’s tennis closely in the late 90’s and early 2000’s you were probably a lifelong fan of the sport.  Back then the men’s game didn’t really lend itself to peaking the interest of the casual fan or acquiring a new generation of supporters as it has in recent years.

Men’s tennis at that time was very clinical and some may even say boring.  If you blinked you could easily miss a point.  It was a time of big servers that produced more aces than a night of Texas Holdem.  If the ace didn’t get you then a serve and volley or smash often would.  It was all about the serve back then and Pete Sampras was king.

Sampras compiled 14 career Grand Slam singles titles, which included seven Wimbledon championships.  He had a deadly serve and would follow that up with a tremendous ability to volley at the net.  Although Sampras may have been the King of Swing, he had several critics that viewed him as mundane and not all that exciting to watch.  Now, while Sampras can’t be faulted for his robotic style on the court, as it was clearly working and winning him matches, it left a lot to be desired for the fans.  That’s why when Sampras took on some guy named Roger Federer in the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2001, tennis would never really be the same again.

This would be the only time these two legends would meet in a competitive match and they didn’t disappoint.  Federer won a thrilling five-set battle and did it in spectacular fashion.  Sampras simply had no answer for the passing ability of Federer.  The serve and volley game that had brought him seven Wimbledon trophies was failing him now.

Although struggling, Sampras continued forward to the net right up until match point.  It was almost as if he didn’t know what else to do because it had worked so many times before.  You don’t see a ton of net play in the men’s game today because everyone can hit the passing shot so well.  It’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

As Federer won the match it wasn’t so much that the era of Sampras was starting to end, it was more an indication that a new style of tennis was bursting onto the scene.  In the coming years it would be clear that if you hoped to even have a chance at winning anything, you better have an all around game.  The bar had been raised.

Federer, as everybody knows, has gone on to win a record 17 Grand Slam singles titles, but his excellence runs much deeper than that.  Let’s forget for a second that he spent 237 consecutive weeks as the number one ranked player in the world, or that he appeared in 18 of 19 Grand Slam finals from 2005-2010, or that he ranks first all-time in career earnings.  His real contribution was that he made the entire sport better and took it to new heights.

Think about that for a second.  There have been plenty of athletes like Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky who have made their team-mates better, but in an individual sport like tennis, Federer made his opponents better.  When Rafael Nadal broke in he was a little wild and unpolished and Novak Djokovic a bit erratic with a short fuse.  Now both have won multiple Majors and have become arguably two of the best to ever play the game.  Federer forced both to raise their level of play just to compete with him.

Not only is Federer the greatest tennis player of all-time, but there is an argument to be made that he is the greatest athlete of all-time.  He seems to never sweat in the heat of the Australian Open, you never see him slip on the grass at Wimbledon, and he somehow manages to avoid getting the red clay on his shoes and socks at Roland Garros.  Not to mention he has never retired from a match in his ATP career.  The guy is seemingly a machine programmed to play tennis.

Even when Federer went over two years recently without winning a Major, saying he was struggling would have been a stretch.  He was still reaching the Quarters, Semis, and Finals, which is a feat many players only dream of.  As he turned the dreaded age of thirty, which is somehow old in the tennis world, he proved once again just how great he was.  A Wimbledon victory, a return to the number one ranking, and an Olympic silver medal were just another chapter in his storied career.

Federer will surely be remembered as the greatest to ever play the game.  He should also be remembered, however, as the guy that took men’s tennis to bigger and better places than it has ever been because of how he elevated his competition.  When he does decide to finally call it quits let’s hope the standards he set don’t leave with him.