I cannot watch this guy without crying. He is the epitome of class.
A few years ago, everyone was talking about him, saying he was not human.
Uh? It's quite the contrary, it's his ability to embrace his humanity that makes him so spectacular.
He was not always as good as he is now and he knew it. He knew he needed work so he went after it. He worked on his game and got really good.
There are two tennis analogies that I always remember when I am in the depths of despair, filled with fear, thinking that I am not strong enough to make  it.
The first is when a tennis player had a weakness if the try to go around it, it gets weaker, so they have to go straight at it in order to strengthen it.
The second is something that I heard Billy Jean King when she was describing her plan to play Bobby Riggs.
She initially thought she was going  to go at him aggressively, but once she hit the court, she switched her plan. She decided to make him run and run and run, and eventually he tired himself out.
I apply this to my life constantly, being aggressive = stupidity, it's a sign of a lack of emotional strength. You will always burn yourself out and lose.
Also the ability to be flexible and change your plan under extreme pressure show a looseness that anyone could benefit from.
The night before my second audition for the movie "The Fighter" I sat in my hotel room over looking the Charles River and watched last year's Wimbledon's match between Nadal and Fed.
I lay there thinking, yeah they can have their coaches,their families and their girlfriends in the stands but when it comes  down to it, they are the ones on the court.
They are the ones who have to show up for themselves.
Fed lost, and he handled it with such grace that I took that with me into the audition the next day.
I got the part, but even if I didn't, I would have been proud of myself because I showed up for myself and I would have handled my defeat with the same grace and dignity that Roger did because it's all part of the journey.
If you let the defeats harden you, you get stuck in the past and your not available to show up for the future.
Every time I grow a have a weakness come up that needs to be strengthen and sometimes i  look silly exposing it but the long term gain is so worth a little short term uncomfortableness.
Roger's journey brought him to yesterday, where he was loose enough to he hit a shot between his legs and it was in!!
Who knows, maybe it was pure luck,but the most important part of that whole shot was that he laughed about it.
Because for me, to be that great is not the reward, to be that great and be able to enjoy it and not take yourself so seriously is the true gift!
FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!