Novak Djokovic lost his second Round Robin match to Robin Soderling 6-7, 1-6.

Novak was very frustrated and angry because Robin played fantastic tennis – hitting the lines with his groundstrokes and sending serves with over 200 km /h with regularity.

The thinking that went through Novak’s mind was something like this: (more…)

Rafael Nadal has again won the final against Novak Djokovic, this time in Rome. Nadal already won in Monte Carlo against Djokovic and is of course the current #1 player in the world.

But I don’t like to see him there. It’s not that he doesn’t deserve his #1 spot.

He does, but not because he beats his opponents with better tennis, but because his opponents beat themselves.

I would like to see the best player in the world to be a better player than his opponents.

He should be able to attack and exploit all types of weakness and be able to win points in a variety of ways. Roger Federer is the perfect example of what a #1 player in the world should play like.

Roger Federer is able to play any tactic he wants and he can play any shot he wants – and of course he is a master of all of them.

But Rafael Nadal plays different tennis.

The tie-break of the first set in the Rome 2009 final is a great example how Nadal plays and how he wins. I’ll break it down shot by shot so that you can see what goes on… (more…)

The Miami 2009 tennis tournament proved to be very exciting and Victoria Azarenka, Juan Martin Del Potro, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray did very well here.

What do these great tennis players have in common in their mental game that enabled them such success?

It’s the power of belief.

They all believed (or just started to believe) that they CAN win and beat the higher ranked opponent.

Juan Martin Del Potro Celebrating His First Win Against Nadal (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Juan Martin Del Potro really believed that he could beat Nadal this time. He played Nadal 4 times before and always lost in straight sets.

When I watched Del Potro in Indian Wells two weeks before when he lost to Nadal 4-6, 2-6, he really didn’t seem to believe he could win.

He seemed intimidated by Nadal, had too much respect for him and really didn’t attack Nadal as he should.

But Del Potro learned something very important from this loss.

He learned that when he plays his own game well, Nadal will not just blast him off the court.

He realized that Nadal is just a human, that he can be neutralized by consistently playing to his backhand, that he can be attacked to the forehand side and will often just defend and that with smart tactics, it is possible to outplay Nadal.

That’s why the Miami match was completely different: Del Potro played the ball. He didn’t play the “big name”. He focused on his game plan and didn’t even falter in the final set tie-break. (more…)

Novak Djokovic achieved an incredible feat this week in Montreal by beating Andy Roddick, ranked #3 in quarterfinals, Rafael Nadal, ranked #2 in semifinals and Roger Federer, ranked #1 in the final.

Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

The score in the final was 7-6, 2-6, 7-6.

It’s quite unusual to see Roger Federer lose in the final since we got so used to seeing him winning.

Roger lost only 7 finals since 2003 (before Montreal) and won 40.

He lost 6 of the finals to Rafael Nadal and one to David Nalbandian.

This makes Novak Djokovic only the third player in the last 4 years that was able to beat Roger Federer in the final.

How did Djokovic accomplish that?

Here’s what the players said in their interviews after the match:

(more…)

Wimbledon saw yesterday 3 exciting and surprising matches where top ranked players lost their leads. 2 of those lost the match, 1 managed to win.

First, Andy Roddick was two sets and a break up against Richard Gasquet and lost this lead and the match 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3), 8-6.

Second, Justine Henin was a set and a break up against Marion Bartoli and lost the lead and the match 1-6 7-5 6-1.

And third, Novak Djokovic was two sets and a break up against Marcos Baghdatis, lost the lead and eventually managed to win in the fifth set 7-6 7-6 6-7 4-6 7-5.

(AFP/Adrian Dennis)

So why do such experienced players lose a lead? Why does this happen? (more…)

Novak Djokovic won a 5 set match today again a French player Patience who fought until the end with huge support from the home crowd.

Djokovic eventually prevailed but he learned some good mental toughness lessons. He also shared some of his thoughts about mental toughness and why he won… (more…)