[Arienna Lee] His Heart's His Mouth

[tented]

Arienna Lee discusses the men's final in Rome in her latest blog post:

http://www.tennisfrontier.com/news/atp-tennis/his-hearts-his-mouth

Enjoy!

 

[Moxie]

Fantastic piece! :clap

 

[Kieran]

That's a great read! Good to see Tom Hiddlestone get a name check, the man's amazing, and I love the way Arienna weaves in personal details into a tremendous narrative, while giving us the tennis too.

Couple of great lines stick out:

"strategy is everything— and nothing without execution."

" I know it was an especially nervous double-fault because it’s been text-validated."

People, I bet this happens all the time, we see these things before they happen. Rafa should give Arienna his number, she could warn him too!

Great stuff, as always... :clap

 

[tented]

" I know it was an especially nervous double-fault because it’s been text-validated."

People, I bet this happens all the time, we see these things before they happen. Rafa should give Arienna his number, she could warn him too!

I love that line, too. It reminded me of Toni whispering that Rafa was going to double fault in the '08 Wimbledon fourth set tiebreak -- and then he did.

 

[Arienna Lee]

Thanks, guys, for the complimentary feedback. I don't typically have much free time to reply to comments (it all goes into the writing!), but I have appreciated the kind words on this discussion forum.

I couldn't resist responding to your seconding of my "text-validated intuition," however. It's a fascinating topic, no? If you want to read a bit more about it, Malcolm Gladwell does an interesting bit on "thin-slicing" and perception in his book Blink. He interviews tennis coach Vic Braden. I'm not sure I agree with everything in the book on intuition, but reading about Braden's experience watching serves is really interesting. He can predict faults without (ahem) flaw! With practice, we really do become very attuned, and able to read minute body language clues of players -- especially with our favorites.

Thanks again for reading, and for commenting. Until Roland Garros...

 

[Moxie]

^ Looking forward to checking that out a bit more…we do sometimes feel that we know when the DF or ace is coming, with these guys. Can't wait to get your take on RG, Arienna!