Life learnings in a game
Hyeon Chung, a 21-year-old South Korean tennis player (world number 58), was playing his quarter final match against Sandgren to become the first Korean player to reach a Grand Slam semifinal at the 2018 Australian Open as an unseeded player. He had beaten the Zverev brothers & Djokovic to reach the quarters.
He played great tennis & won first two sets and is serving for the match at 5 - 4. He blasts 3 unreturnable serves to go up 40-0. The commentator says, “this guy is not going to blink”.
In the post-match interview, he was asked what he was thinking at that point. He says, “I was thinking about the post-match ceremony”.
First match point a close first serve, is called out. He challenges, it’s out by inches. The next 8 minutes see some bizarre points. A 31-point rally with back-hand slices with both waiting for the other to make a mistake. Sandgren blocking two impossible volleys which were drilled at him from half court. Finally, at match point number 6, Chung finishes it off to setup semis with tennis God Federer.
This one game shows us several life learnings.
- Our past achievements, are our strength. We get confidence from them, but they don’t help us getting past the finish line. We have to get it done, again.
- Focusing on the goal is good but if we lose sight of the path to get there, we would get ahead of ourselves.
- It’s important at the right time to take stock and modify our strategy, keeping our achievements & ego aside.
- Respect the competition, be it the circumstances or opponents.
- The next challenge would be bigger. It’s a process enjoy & learn from it.
Watch the game (9:39) here: (Thanks to Australian Open TV)