It takes two….

….winners and losers. Now the Australian Open (AO) is underway one hears about who won a match and who lost their match as if that’s all there is to sport. It started me thinking. Although I have played other sports, namely, golf, table tennis and badminton they have all been a good way to improve my tennis game. All my energies have gone into tennis and much as it is about winning your matches this is not an easy task at the beginning when you first start playing professionally especially if, like me, you haven’t played juniors. Everyone is new to you. You have never played them before. Tournaments, courts, match play are all new and it takes time to adjust and get used to all of this. Although this is not a problem any of the players have in the main draw there can be some similarities. A top player may meet a lower ranked player they have never heard of much less played and, sometimes, this can advantage the lesser known player who has no pressure on them to win the match.  It is always tough to play someone for the first time. The lower ranked player has access to footage of the higher ranked player but not the other way round which may be why at times there are surprising, shock defeats in Grand Slams. One example is Rogowska v Kostyuk in the 2^nd round. Rogowska would be expected to win against the teenager ranked 521 but the two have never met before and Rogowska found herself rushed by the teenager who took the ball early. Rogowska didn’t play badly she just was unable to recover fast enough to win.

Bencic defeated Venus Williams which was a surprise because Venus has won all her matches against her. So what happened? As Venus explained, her own game was on form, she played well but her opponent came out of the starting-block with such amazing shots that it was difficult for Venus to know how to defeat her. It’s hard to always figure out how to defeat your opponent when you are having to deal with their quick firing shots. In golf you have time to think, prepare and improve during your round. Tennis happens too fast. You have to react quickly. Bencic also had the added advantage that Melanie Molitor who coached Bencic, and Martina Hingis know Venus’ game so thoroughly they were well placed to help Bencic against Venus. At times Bencic has the knack that Hingis has of knowing where to place the ball to make it unreturnable. (A similar situation occurred at Wimbledon last year when Muguruza won the title, with Conchita Martinez as her coach, against Venus.) Interestingly enough Bencic went on to lose her next match against Kumkhum, whom she had only met once before at Aegon International, Eastbourne June 2014, and beat her easily 6-0, 6-2.  Kumkhum loses more than she wins yet here she is now beating Bencic relatively easily 6-1 6-3 and through to the third round of a Grand Slam! Which goes to show never give up because you don’t know what your next match will bring. Perhaps the win of a lifetime!

Both winners and losers contribute to a match making it enjoyable and gripping to watch. The majority of the time there’s a slim margin between the winner and loser, eg the winner has only 4 points more than the loser. The scores are closer than many think. So we need to credit both winners and losers for giving us enjoyable, entertaining, skill-filled matches rather than just focus on the winner and let them receive all the credit. For instance, Petra Kvitova played incredibly well in her first round. It went to the wire and she lost in the third set 10-8. Petkovic won. Credit to her but let’s not forget the amazing play of Kvitova! She equally played her part in making it a nail-biting match.

So, sport is about appreciating all players, those at the top of the game as well as lower ranked players not least because one of them could well be a future number 1.