Last year I was lucky enough to get to watch Sabine Lisicki play a against one of my players at the 2010 Bell Challenge in Quebec City, Canada. She was just coming back from a horrific ankle injury she had sustained on match point during her 2009 2nd round U.S. Open match against Radionova seen here....http://youtu.be/6lTX2frhoUc
The Bell Challenge was one of many tough tournaments during this come back period for Sabine. She struggled with every chapter of the match. The warm-up looked pained and tedious, she looked like a fish out of water. Her father, a balding, sort of gentle giant whom I believe is a doctor in Germany (don't quote me on that!) was sitting a few feet to my right. The anxiety that his daughter was feeling was apparent and his parental concerns written all over his face. After a short struggle Sabine was ousted in the first round by my student at the time Alexa Glatch 6-2, 6-4 and she bowed out with class. Her lack of confidence and match play had been obvious.
Sabine handled this rough patch in her career with class. She is a soft spoken, well mannered, hard working professional which is not as common as one would think. Each Player handles difficult times in their careers differently. Some throw tantrums and rackets, others look at it like a math problem and figure it out with hard work and hard hat mentallity.
Fast forward to this years Wimbledon where Sabine has now advanced to the second week of the third grand slam of the year, her best result in a major to date. It is refreshing to see a player who was struggling to find their game a little less than a year ago, experience their hard work paying off in a big way! There was no crystal ball for Sabine, there was no guarantee that if she worked hard she would see the results. But she had belief.....belief in the unknown. As Larry Bird said “I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.” Sabine Lisicki's eyes welled up with tears of joy after her win against Li Na in the second round of Wimby. Her hard work payed off! I am a fan of Sabine Lisicki........
The Bell Challenge was one of many tough tournaments during this come back period for Sabine. She struggled with every chapter of the match. The warm-up looked pained and tedious, she looked like a fish out of water. Her father, a balding, sort of gentle giant whom I believe is a doctor in Germany (don't quote me on that!) was sitting a few feet to my right. The anxiety that his daughter was feeling was apparent and his parental concerns written all over his face. After a short struggle Sabine was ousted in the first round by my student at the time Alexa Glatch 6-2, 6-4 and she bowed out with class. Her lack of confidence and match play had been obvious.
Sabine handled this rough patch in her career with class. She is a soft spoken, well mannered, hard working professional which is not as common as one would think. Each Player handles difficult times in their careers differently. Some throw tantrums and rackets, others look at it like a math problem and figure it out with hard work and hard hat mentallity.
Fast forward to this years Wimbledon where Sabine has now advanced to the second week of the third grand slam of the year, her best result in a major to date. It is refreshing to see a player who was struggling to find their game a little less than a year ago, experience their hard work paying off in a big way! There was no crystal ball for Sabine, there was no guarantee that if she worked hard she would see the results. But she had belief.....belief in the unknown. As Larry Bird said “I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.” Sabine Lisicki's eyes welled up with tears of joy after her win against Li Na in the second round of Wimby. Her hard work payed off! I am a fan of Sabine Lisicki........
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