I WANT IT SO BAD

The Spin Team

Bianca Andresscu - BNP Paribas Open Champion 2019

There will be many pieces written about the new flavour of the moment on the WTA Tour, i.e. 18 year old Bianca Andresscu.  There will be talk about her mental toughness.  Her fearless tennis.  Her ability to mix up her game etc. etc etc.  However, what I want to talk about are those 4 words that she uttered to her coach during a coaching visit. 

Down 3-2 in the third Andresscu called her coach down courtside for a visit.  During the interaction while he was trying to calm her down and talk tactics she said to him "I want it so bad".  For me those words defined her mental game more than any ground stroke. 

A few years ago there was a documentary featuring Serena and her then hitting partner Sascha Bajin.  Serena was in the gym and she was having a really hard conversation with Bajin.  She was basically saying that Bajin was not going hard enough in practice with her and she found that to be quite frustrating.  Her next words were significant because it showed the mindset of Serena when she goes on the court.  She said to Bajin "these girls hate me".  Now hate might have been a very harsh way to talk about your work colleagues, but this was the mind of Serena.  She believed then that every single player on the WTA Tour hated her and as a result of that she had to go  harder than anyone else.  It may be true but it just showed what motivates people.  Consider then Andresscu who was fighting so hard because she wanted it so bad.  She wanted this win and it did not matter if she had to fight through cramps, nerves and especially her opponent, but she wanted that title. 

For years as people talked about the new flavour of the month on the WTA Tour, I have always been struck by the fact that this new generation of players did not want it that badly.  I look at Pliskova, huge serve, big game and who just can't seem to get out of her way long enough to do damage on the Tour.  There are others: last year's semi-finalist, Daria Kasatkina seems to have just disappeared from view.  Sloane Stephens with all her accomplishments seems to just flit in and out as she feels.  And the list goes on and on.  

Andresscu first came on my radar when she beat Venus Williams at this year's WTA event in Auckland.  I was struck by the way she played against a champion like Venus and of course I wrote her off as a one hit wonder.  The fact that she lost that final in Auckland kind of settled my opinion of her.  I am glad to see that she has continued her meteoric rise and I do hope that she sticks around. 

The one thing that may be her downfall is her lack of fitness. Many will say that she outlasted 2 of the fittest players on Tour in Svitolina and Kerber, but as we all saw, she was able to hit through those players on the slow hard courts of Indian Wells.  It will be interesting to see how she adapts her game to the slow clay of the European swing.  

While many people will talk about Andresscu's win over Svitolina as a turning point, I think her win against Muguruza was for me the turning point.  Up 6-0, 3-0, Muguruza finally won a game and Andresscu seemed quite annoyed at that.  That showed me how much she really wanted this particular title. 

While writing this piece I happened to speak to my editor and the discussion focused around Federer’s loss and Serena’s desire. My editor intimated that the desire for winning that was so a part of Federer’s run to No. 100 in Dubai is completely different than the intensity and desire that he showed in the Indian Wells final. Some folks will say that perhaps Thiem took away his fight by outplaying him, but it could very well be that Federer having achieved 100 titles became complacent.

Contrasting with another champion in Serena Williams.  I finally got to watch Being Serena.  One of the things that jumped out at me (and I believe I mentioned this in previous articles) is the fact that Serena’s mental game seems to have been softened.  Before all the feminists get on my case, consider Serena’s own words in Being Serena “I don’t know whether I have that fight in me any more”. Serena was not giving up, but she was in that place where she was thinking that there are far more important things in life than winning tennis matches. 

I recall saying last year when Serena came back that one of the things that was missing from her game was her inability to finish off her opponent.  Many people believed that this is something that is inherent in tennis players.  It is not.  It is a mind set.  It is the refusal to lose.  That is something that is ingrained in every professional athlete from the minute they take up a sport and decide to play it professionally.  It is the reason many of us who work in advertising or in any field where success is instrumental in how we perceive ourselves tend to fight tooth and nail and breathe a sigh of relief when we accomplish what we first set out to do.

It used to be the case that players would lose their matches from the time they are in the locker room against Serena.  Not so much any  more.  They can sense that Serena is not performing at an optimum level.  That killer instinct is not there just yet.  Will Serena and Federer, 2 champions who have displayed over many years their will to win say to themselves “I want it so bad” and go out there and get it? That remains to be seen but it will be interesting to see how they navigate their desires, because let us face it, what else do they have to or need to achieve.  What is their want it so bad moment and have they already achieved it?