Chapter 1068: Abandoning Perfection
"Out of Bounds!"
The linesman's gesture was very firm, indicating that Dimitrov's backhand was out of bounds, causing him to lose the point and the entire second set.
Dimitrov couldn't believe his eyes. He hugged his head in annoyance, squatted down suddenly, and stood up again suddenly: the opportunity had come.
Gao Wen had created an opportunity for himself through fake moves in front of the net. The Spanish duo of Verdasco and Ferrer on the other side of the net had misjudged the ball, and the entire straight half-court space was completely exposed.
but!
He missed it!
Surprisingly!
incredible!
Dimitrov looked at the referee in astonishment and surprise, almost crying, and asked loudly.
"are you sure?"
The referee nodded in affirmation, and gestured with his thumb and index finger:
Just a little bit out of bounds, really just a little bit.
Dimitrov was still a little unwilling to accept it. He lost the second set anyway, and it would be a waste if he didn't use the Hawkeye challenge, so he signaled for the challenge.
"Dmitrov/Gao, Hawkeye challenged the left sideline, on-site ruling: out of bounds."
When the referee's voice came, the audience began to clap their hands, and the uniform applause was in anticipation of the decision of the Hawkeye challenge.
Gao Wen turned around, trotted all the way back from the net to the baseline, raised his right hand, and high-fived Dimitrov.
Dimitrov's face was full of apologies. He gave a helpless wry smile, and his drooped shoulders revealed a sense of frustration.
Confidence and discouragement are the same. Once they occur, they can gradually accumulate and form a force. Therefore, victories can easily accumulate into winning streaks, and failures can easily accumulate into losing streaks. If you want to break this cycle, you often need a stronger external force to break free.
Obviously, Dimitrov was surrounded by frustration.
Think about it.
Although Gao Wen knew that the game was not over yet and this was definitely not the best time to have a heart-to-heart talk, from another perspective, perhaps now was the best time. Precisely because the game was in progress, they could break free from the shackles and overcome their inner demons through actual combat. This kind of courage was what competitive sports needed.
He quickly looked back at the big screen. The result of the Hawkeye challenge had not yet been played. Gawain made a prompt decision and spoke quickly.
"Grigor, sometimes it's not necessary to be perfect."
"It's not that we don't need to pursue perfection, but we need to understand that we don't need to hit the ball perfectly every time to win a point. Then, we also need to accept the fact that no one is perfect and we can't hit the ball perfectly every time. Judging the time and the right time is also a kind of ability."
Dimitrov is indeed very similar to Federer when he was young in every aspect.
When Federer was just starting out, he was gifted and the center of everyone's attention. The whole world had high hopes for him, but he was unable to make a breakthrough in his career and often lost control of his emotions on the court, smashing his racket, yelling, mumbling, and confronting referees and the audience.
reason?
The root cause is pressure. It is precisely because the outside world has high expectations of him that he has higher requirements for his performance. Moreover, he is a perfectionist and hopes to achieve perfection every time he hits the ball. The pace, swing, strength, and landing point all need to be pursued to the extreme.
The more pressure there is, the more we desire perfection and to prove ourselves; but the more we desire this, the less we can do it.
Then, a vicious cycle is formed.
For young people, they often cannot handle such an emotional cycle, and end up becoming irritable, angry, and out of control.
The same goes for Dimitrov.
On the one hand, there are expectations and pressure; on the other hand, there is one's own pursuit of perfection.
Watching Dimitrov's games, just like Federer in the early stages of his career, he plays smoothly and effortlessly, and every move is like that of a graceful swordsman, which is truly pleasing to the eye. He strives for extreme perfection in every shot, not only aiming for every corner to hit the ball, but also has strict requirements on the effect of the shot.
However, in tennis, this is obviously an impossible task.
So, many times, they pursue perfection too much, which leads to hitting errors, very low-level and simple errors.
In the end, their games are like an embroidered pillow that looks good but is useless. The highlights are gorgeous, but the results are often disappointing.
Later, Federer finally realized this, broke free from the shackles, and his career underwent a transformation.
Of course, he is still a perfectionist, but he used to be an "incurable perfectionist", and it would be different without the prefix; on the contrary, Federer's wife Mirka is still an incurable perfectionist and strictly requires Federer's training and competition.
Dimitrov is still young and has not given up this obsession yet. He not only wants to win, but also wants to win smoothly, neatly and beautifully.
When hitting the ball, it is inevitable to pursue perfection.
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However, in recent times, Dimitrov has been in poor form, with his touch and ball feel fluctuating significantly. If he continues to hit and lay out the ball in the way he did in his peak period, the results may be a mess, and he will end up in a vicious circle: pursuing perfection because of pressure, but increasing mistakes because of the pursuit of perfection, and accumulating pressure because of the increase in mistakes.
In last year's Asian season, Gao Wen also faced a similar dilemma, so how did he get out of the trough? It's simple, accept your imperfections, accept your poor condition, and accept that you have to change your way of playing in order to return to your original way of playing.
This does not mean compromising, giving up, or surrendering, but finding a way to reconcile with yourself and then tap into your full potential.
Dimitrov also needs to realize this, he needs to learn to forgive himself, this is the first step.
That’s what happened just now.
In fact, both Ferrer and Verdasco had made misjudgments and the gap had been completely exposed. Dimitrov only needed to send the ball to a straight line in front of the net and the winning point would be safely in his pocket.
However, Dimitrov wanted a perfect winner.
Scoring is not enough, it also requires elegance, excitement and perfection. Therefore, the backhand is aimed straight at the blind spot of the baseline, but the racket head speed is a little slow and the racket is not retracted fast enough, so the falling parabola of the tennis ball is a little lacking and it fails to turn into the baseline, resulting in it going out of bounds.
From scoring to losing points, it's just a matter of a single thought.
Of course, Gao Wen also knew that this was not easy.
"Perfectionism" is a character, a quality, and a lifestyle. Some people cannot change it in their entire lives, let alone in just a few words.
Taking advantage of the gap in Hawkeye's challenge, Gawain simply threw out a mark, planted a seed, and looked forward to the day when it would take root and sprout.
at the same time.
Gawain added another sentence.
"Moreover, you should learn to trust your partner. Otherwise, it would be too pitiful for me to stand in front of the net ready to play but without any room to play."
With just a few words, Gawain succeeded in making Dimitrov laugh. Although he didn't think so in his heart, he vaguely felt that Gawain was right.
Looking at Gawain, Dimitrov's tense heartstrings relaxed again. Unconsciously.
(End of this chapter)