Sharp evaluation final丨Saba: Burn yourself with fire, explore the pearls in the sea; Gauff: Zen monks settle down, like hydration

In ancient times, there was a sharpshooter who hit the bull's-eye with the first arrow in the royal competition, but the second arrow accidentally missed the target because he wanted a reward. But when he closed his eyes and fired the third arrow, it split in half at the bull's-eye - the first half pierced deep into the bull's-eye, and the second half fell straight into the dust.

Isn't life as contradictory as this cracked arrow? Sometimes you ask for kindness, but sometimes you can't, the more you want to get, the easier it is to lose, and the more you don't care, the easier it is to get.

After the French Open women's singles final, Sabalenka broke down in tears at the award ceremony, choking up and apologizing to her team: "I played a bad final. This is her second consecutive Grand Slam final of the year, losing to Case at the Australian Open and Gauff at the French Open, both in a three-set battle that was won first and then lost.

In her post-match press conference, Sabalenka revealed her state of mind during the match: "I had a lot of mental turmoil, and sometimes I even felt like I was playing against my own heart. I don't think she's doing anything incredible, it's just that I'm just terrible. ”

1. "Burning herself with fire and exploring the pearls in the sea", Sabalenka went from firm self-confidence to self-doubt

When it comes to this match now, many will blame Sabalenka's defeat on 'fitness'. Actually, I don't fully agree with this view, because for a top player who is already ranked No. 1 in the world and has a full team of physical rehabilitation behind him, it is an "insult" to use fitness as a shield for failure.

So where does the problem arise? From the official statistics given after the match, it can be seen that Sabalenka started in the middle of the second set, and her second serve speed was 17 kilometers slower than the average speed of her previous serve, and the accuracy of the small ball landing in front of the net also decreased by 28%. In addition, Sabalenka not only double-faulted many times in the last two sets, but also plummeted to 39% on the second serve and 17% on the first serve.

In my opinion, this is clearly caused by the distortion of the athlete's technology in a high-pressure situation.

As Sabalenka said after the game, it was her own inner struggles and self-denial that ruined it. Jung put forward the "shadow theory" in Jung the Sorcerer, that is, people habitually suppress those shadowed selves, but when those boxes surface, those repressed selves will gradually swallow the light in their hearts.

When Sabalenka was at a 4-1 (40-0) lead in the first set, Gauff relied on a tenacious defense to equalize and break serve, dealing a crucial psychological blow to Sabalenka. After that, Sabalenka's serve was broken twice to win the set, which made people faintly see the pain and struggle of the world No. 1 "burned on fire". Although she relied on her "bold wrist" to win the first set, the more than an hour of grappling in the first set also reached her physical and mental limits.

At the beginning of the second set, while Gauff was still fighting back with every heavy ball like a "Zen monk", Sabalenka was caught in a double attrition of body and spirit: "I have to fight against my opponent, but I also have to fight against the harsh self in my heart." ”

That sense of division culminated in the seventh game of the deciding set, when she dropped a rare four straight points before comfortably sending away her own serve. In the end, she had no choice but to score with one fight after another, and when she chose to use her trademark forehand on match point, the stiffness of her shoulder muscles at the moment of swing made the ball fly off the baseline, like a split arrow in the opening fable.

"You always count on someone else to treat your mental problems, but it's useless. I have to take responsibility myself – I'm my mental coach. That's what Sabalenka said when she won the 2023 Australian Open, and now it seems to have cracked in the spotlight of defeat.

2. "Zen monks settle down and hydrate them", a new realm of Gaofu's red dust meditation!

Today, Gauff has developed his own defensive philosophy. I remember the saying, "A good experience comes from submission." This means that no matter what needs to be constrained by theory, it is not absolutely free. Once upon a time, Gauff was also full of doubts about herself, and she longed to meet a famous teacher to guide her serve and forehand. However, it wasn't until the end of last year that she realized that "if a technique can be self-consistent in its own tactical system, then other people's voices don't seem to matter that much!" ”

Gauff listens to her own feelings, trusts her body, respects her body's feedback, and follows the direction that her feelings give her, so that her shots always feel like a flowing shield, naturally happy and uninhibited.

In this match, she managed to drag Sabalenka into the deep water with multiple shots, and used the slow court characteristics of clay to wear down her opponent. When Sabalenka narrowly won the first set in a tie-break, Gauff's counter-attacking machine quietly kicked in – squeezing unforced errors into single digits in the second set, with a backhand cut that tore through the angle like a scalpel. This tactic is the embodiment of the "adaptive thinking" described in "Mindset to Win": "True tenacity is not to resist the hammer, but to change with the situation like water." ”

No tenacity is innate! It is reported that at this year's French Open, Gauff's team began to use the "Situation Reproduction Training Mode" to improve Gauff's ability to withstand pressure in adversity! For example, the team will ask Gauff to try to play 0-40 down in a training match, or simulate a 4-0 lead in training and have it work with breathing rhythm to carve new reaction patterns in his brain and improve the experience of fighting against the wind during the game.

And the effect of such training is also obvious. With a quarter-final win over Case, a semi-final win over Boisson and a final win over Sabalenka, Gauff's concentration and ability to withstand pressure against the wind are her biggest weapons.

Admittedly, Sabalenka's loss was regrettable, but everything was as Li Na wrote in her autobiography: "To win, you have to be as hungry for victory as a man who treks in the desert thirsts for water." This desire is not an obsession with trophies, but a surrender to the nature of competition.

When Sabalenka weptly congratulated Gauff at the ceremony, we saw an opportunity for some kind of transformation – what Jung called "shadow integration" may be taking place: "Only by confronting the specter of defeat can we reclaim the power that has been swallowed by it!" ”

At the end of the story, the archer finally resigned from his official position and chose to retreat to the mountains and forests. When his disciple asked him about the mystery of the cracked arrow, he smiled and shot three arrows, and the three arrows also hit the bullseye with precision and succession. He said, "Because these three arrows are no longer for the emperor." Before the words fell, the fourth arrow flew out of the string, and a silver light was drawn in the air, disappearing at the junction of heaven and earth.

"The obsession of winning and losing is like an arrow target, framing infinite possibilities, and only the moment when you throw the tennis ball into the air without distractions, can you find the essence of tennis!" May we all understand this simple truth soon!(Source: Tennis Home Author: Lu Xiaotian)