Invisible Greatness: Part 3

What did Pavel Slozil say about invisible greatness at his birthday party? The further I dove into my research, the more I began to wonder what some of the invisible ingredients are that motivate players to work so hard and sacrifice so much to achieve their goals? (Click Here for Part 1 in this series. Click Here for Part 2.) What leads to that fiery desire that JoAnne Russell talked about at Pavel Slozil's birthday party? What did Pavel himself think? Slozil, who was a member of the 1980 Czech Davis Cup champion team, coached Steffi Graf during her prime, when she won the "Golden Slam" in 1988 (all four majors, plus Olympic gold). Considered by many tennis experts to be the greatest women's singles champ of all time, Graf won 22 major singles titles and was ranked no. 1 in the world for a record 377 total weeks. "Only the strongest people can work to their maximum, maybe, fifteen, twenty days out of thirty," says Slozil. "Steffi was every day, really every day. In five years she never disappointed me." What motivated her? "First," Slozil answered, "she loved to play tennis. Even though, from the start, it was a...