Andy Roddick

Andy’s match was a sports psych’s dream.  Andy played a deliberate style early in the match but the 20 year old opponent is very smooth and athletic with a dream backhand.  It appeared early on that Andy was not serving his best.  He had been well around the 70% mark and lots of free points coming into the match.  His arm today seemed a little dead.

Sure enough, he called for the trainer who did some deep tissue work to loosen it up.  The players are limited as to how many times they can be treated for the  same injury, so at some point, Andy had to decide if he could continue or retire.  Questions to consider include: can I finish the match, will I further damage my shoulder, how will it affect me in my next tournament in San Jose – the SAP Open? Much to his credit, he changed tactics and stayed in the set.

As we have all experienced when playing an injured player, it can affect our game as well. We mentally start wondering if he can finish or attempt to change our game to see if we can take advantage of the injury.  That will usually affect the non-injured player more than the injured player – and it did.  When we quit worrying how we are playing and just hit – we do well and that is what Andy begin to do – hit the ball flatter and put the opponent on his heels.

Andy worked his way through the 3rd and 4th set. The pain killers he had been given seemed to numb the pain and he began to serve stronger as he went along. Whey – it’s 2 sets each now and the next change is about to occur.  At 2 all in sets now, Andy takes a deep sigh of relieve and goes back to his old style of play, more spin and less aggressive.  Cilic realizes it is now or never and  begins to come out of his shell.  Andy has 40-love on his opponents serve in the first game of the 5th set and lets is get away.  Now Cilic breathes a sigh of relief.  Andy is upset, letting it get away like that but does not go on the attack again.  He reverts to the way he played the 1st and 2nd set and Cilic is too fast and has too good of hands.  He handles Andy’s spinner shots and puts him on the run again.

I am on the couch pulling for Andy – but at 4-2 with Cilic serving, it is not up to Andy.  He has let himself get behind and it is up to the Croatian to win or lose at this point.  He serves big and pulls off the upset – his first ever major semi-final.

What can we get from the match? It is easy from the couch to see what to do and listen to the advice of the announcers.  On the court, we have all felt and done what Andy did tonight.  But his determination not to give up when others have been retiring in this event this year points to how much of a fighter Andy is – just like his Wimbledon match with Roger last summer.  14-16 in the 5th set.

Andy did a great job playing with what he had to play with.  He adjusted his game, moved in to take second serves inside the baseline and just go for shots.  It is easy when you are down – you are losing anyhow.  When we get even and realize we can now win, there is a tendency to back off and hope the other player will lose. The difference is slight, hardly noticeable to some spectators, only those of you who put yourself on the line and play league play would know the feeling.

What Andy and we experience is an article I wrote about on my blog site called the “hour glass“ effect.  Just like and hour glass, the person on top has only a few thoughts crossing their mind.  The person on the bottom of the hour glass has all the thoughts coming down on them – too fast, bad equipment, shouldn’t lose to this player and etc.  Finally with time is about to run out on them, the person on the bottom decides to – just go for it, don’t miss, go in, it doesn’t really matter – they just begin to have one thought only.  The fear is gone.  The player on top now has switched to the bottom of the hour glass and all these thoughts begin to creep in – I could win this set, game or match, never defeated this player before, my next opponent is …  it doesn’t matter, this player now has all the monsters in his mind.  The momentum has switched and the hour glass was turned over several times in this match.

Good on you to Andy.  We hope he did not injure his shoulder to badly.  He is 9 and 1 in 2010 and off to a good start.

Photo Credits: burntfilm

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