The Inner Game of Tennis

When I think about all the great tennis players that have given us so much pleasure over the years, it seems that those who are truly great have one match that they could look back on as the match that turned them from boys to men.

The match that made them fundamentally different human beings. The match that they won against all the odds and came out the other side playing at a level that was not possible for them before their pivotal match

Cast your mind back to this time last year. And remember the early hours of the morning of Thursday 23rd January. Those of you who turned on your TV
when you got home from Wednesday's night out in Melbourne's fair city would have been astounded to see that, at 1 o'clock in the morning, play was still going on!

The match between Andy Roddick and Younes El Aynaoui turned out to be the turning point for Andy Roddick.

Before that match he was a brash young yank with a lot of bravado, plenty of talent, but not a lot of consistent results. After that match a different player stepped onto the court.

Sure, he lost in the next round at the Open last year (not even superman could have recovered after that gruelling five-setter) but Andy Roddick was .... different. You could see it in his eyes, in the way he approached the game, and the way he handled himself on court. He grew up that night - and the rest, as they say is history.

Now, remember the afternoon of 30th November 2003 and Mark Phillipousis' incredible effort to win the fifth set 6-0 against Juan Carlos Ferrero and secure the Davis Cup for Australia.

Mark Philippousis is now a different man. Watching him play his first round match last night against Thomas Johansson you could see that something had shifted. Any doubt he had about his ability to win matches was gone. There was almost an aura around him which seemed to say "no matter what happens I'm going to win this". And win it he did. It was inspiring to watch.

These moments are what makes tennis such an incredible sport. It's not what the players make of their game - it's what the game makes of the players.