The Value of Optimism: Part 1: Michael Chang

[stotty]

Vitas and John Lloyd 1977 Aussie Open final...

Nice article...takes me back a bit.

It's strange how playing an ailing or injured player can affect your psyche. Even Lendl found it a conundrum.

In 1977 John Lloyd, who comes from my club, had to play Vitas Gueralitis in the final of the Australian Open. Vitas won the first two sets, John fought back to win the next two. In the fifth set Vitas suddenly became overcome with cramp and was finding it difficult to move around with any athleticism. John knew all he had to do was move him around and surely Vitas would seize up completely. But a mixture of empathy and overplaying the move-him-around-tactic played havoc with John's psyche. Vitas hung on while John made countless errors. Vitas went on to win the fifth set. To this day John thinks he might have won that match if he had just carried on playing his normal game. It's not easy playing an injured player.

Some player feign injury to see what effect it will have...might just throw the opposition...hmm...a rather good player from my country has been accused of that.

[johnyandell]

gok,

Yep, inspiring! I am old enough to have seen that match live on tv and as unbelievable as it seems historically it was even more amazing at the time!

Remember Rod Laver was only 5'9" and one of the Rochus bros (forget which) is like 5'6".

The slams may require more size but successful tennis at most levels doesn't!

[gokulms]

John, that article was really inspiring. i have a six year old who has tennis in him. but as a family we are a little height challenged in the area of 5'8' and below. with average height of players now a days touching 6', we always wonder about will he be able to compete at high levels. playing tennis for fun apart, he is serious. so reading this article really put that thought in the back burner for now. Chang overcame that challenge in so many different ways. one to keep it. thnx

[johnyandell]

Would love to get your thoughts on Allen Fox's article "The Value of Optimism: Part 1: Michael Chang"