What if the smile was the key to the match, this Friday during the duel between Carlos Alcaraz and Frances Tiafoe on the Centre Court of Wimbledon? The question may be funny, but the two protagonists will not be far from affirming it if you ask them the question. This smile, precisely, Frances Tiafoe seems to have lost it during this year 2024. It seemed indelible, but his 17 defeats and 5 eliminations in the first round have erased it. The showman with the happy face has given way to the sad clown, on and off the court. As shown by his slightly disrespectful statements after qualifying for the second round at the All England Club. “Tennis is brutal. There are ups and downs. Look at where I am. I was 10th in the world last year and now, I’m barely seeded here, losing to clowns.” His tormentors on the circuit in 2024 will appreciate the remark.
guillement
Having a smile is the key to everything I do.
The American is one of those players whose mood radiates into the game. There are fewer and fewer of them on the circuit hanging around the courts with a smiling face, but they still exist. Carlos Alcaraz is one of them, among others. But for these tennis players, when the fun is lost, it is their entire mechanics that deteriorate. The 20 places lost by Frances Tiafoe in the ATP rankings over the last ten months attest to this. Like the Murcian, who had experienced a complicated phase on the mental level between his victory at Wimbledon in the summer of 2023 and his elimination in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open last winter. With this record of 0 titles over this period. But spring brought back his predatory smile and the titles returned, as if by magic. He also confided this on this subject to Le Figaro at the beginning of the year: “I always see tennis as a game and I always enjoy being on a court. Having a smile is the key to everything I manage to do. I smile a lot when I play and it shows in my game.” His friend on the circuit, Frances Tiafoe, agrees: “You stop having fun and you find yourself in a strange position. Then you forget what you were doing to win. Like everything, nothing is always rosy. It’s how quickly you can get out of it. And there is always light at the end of the tunnel. You try to find it with small victories, or you continue to feel sorry for yourself and play the victim. That’s when it gets darker and darker.”
Rekindle the flame
In essence, the two protagonists, who will challenge each other this Friday for a place in the 8th finals of Wimbledon, say that high-level sport sometimes swallows up the pleasure of playing. The one you rub shoulders with when you are a child, far from sponsors and dollars. In the meantime, the kid from Maryland born into a penniless family knows that Carlos Alcaraz is not the best opponent to get back on track. But the result doesn’t matter, as long as he can find his smile again.
2024-07-05 10:22:00
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