The recent French Open leaves all of us with incredible lessons that we can apply to our daily lives. First let’s start with Simona Halep’s victory. She had been to a grand slam final 3 times before, with a loss each time as a result. Specially tough to overcome was last year’s French Open final in which she had been ahead twice in the match only to lose confidence in herself and fold under pressure. Well she worked hard, overcame her demons and reached the final of this year’s Australian Open; but she again came out 2nd best to Wozniacki. Any other player could have been terribly affected by that defeat but she bounced right back and claimed the next SLAM! At the recent French Open final she was actually the own down a set and behind in the second set when she started her turn around!!
It is so true that a loss ( or any setback) can take you either to learn and become a better person or better player in this case or in can take down the opposite path. It’s all up to you, how you react to what’s happened. Halep learned from each defeat and in the end knew that if she trusted her training and her mental preparation, if she played her game, if she believed in herself, eventually things would play out. And they did.
On the other hand, Rafael Nadal’s victory shows us a different angle and teaches an alternative lesson. Here is a player that a couple of years ago was struggling to find his game again, recovering from injuries and had more and more of the newer younger players battling to dethrone the old guard ( Nadal / Federer ). Nadal had already one 10 Roland Garros! He really did not have anything to prove; well to us but I think to himself he did. His 11th Roland Garros victory exemplifies that persistence, consistency and discipline will always play a critical part in creating the outcome you wish. And it i seven more impressive doing it at 32 years of age when there are so many excellent your tennis players today in the field.
It is not easy for some of us to have or to sustain the same level of confidence and belief that propelled Halep to win her 1st slam and Rafa’s to obtain his 17th! However, the more we read about these success stories and the more we analyze them, it helps us to forge that same type of belief inside of us because we see that it is possible through these examples. Hard work does pay off, but hard work plus belief can be an unstoppable combination!
See you at the next Slam – Wimbledon!