June 8th 2009 - Did Dinara Do It?

Hi,
I hope today finds you well.

The title of this issue is 'Did Dinara Do It?' and no doubt many of you will be asking 'who, where and what now?'
Fair enough, so here goes...

Sat 6th June 2009 saw the final of the French Open tennis in Paris.
Not since 2001 has a womens final even gone to 3 sets, so the hope was that Dinara Safina and fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova could serve up a treat.

Er, no they couldn't, and in fact it was the serve that caused the problem, as Safina's serve was just appaling - it led to a fairly easy victory for Kuznetsova.

So here's the thing - Dinara Safina is the current world number 1 ranked player, but she has yet to win a Grand Slam title, and in tennis unless you pick up one of those babies, you're never considered to be the top.

Saturday was her 3rd Grand Slam final and she has played badly in all of them, so it may look like she never will win one, although it should be remembered that Chris Evert lost her first 3 finals.

So what has all this got to do with goal achievement and self improvement?
Well in Dinara's case I want to go to her chidhood.
Her mother was a top tennis coach, and she vowed that both Dinara and her older brother Marat Safin would be number 1 ranked Grand Slam winners.

That sounds familiar to when Richard Williams decided both his daughters Venus and Serena would get to the top.

Marat retires this year, as a former world number 1, and with 2 Slam titles under his belt, so the pressure is starting to pile up on Dinara.

Not easy, eh? And it shows just how hard some people will work towards their goal, and *keep* working.

Right from childhood, her life has been tennis. Hour after hour hitting balls, physical training, diet regimes, for year after year.
Defeats along the way, and back to the drawing board.

Now, even as world number 1 she has problems. She has had to work so hard at the mechanics of her swing that it now such a mental pressure, it makes it her worst shot, and this in turn is stopping her getting that title.

So, she has lot more work to do, but here's another clue she gave as to what it can sometimes take to get to the top - when she lost there were tears, and no doubt she wanted to rush off court.
However, she was contractually obliged to stand and give a speech to the crowd of 15,000!

Wow.

With all that must have been in her head, she remembered to thank the sponsors by name.
That's impressive, and shows someone who has the necessary steel to gether through the downs, in the belief that she is powering towards the ups!

Not every goal is as tough as the one she is going for, but by jiminy there is much to be learnt by watching Dinara *not* get her goal!

Ok, that's it for now, I'm off to get my seat comfy for Wimbledon..!

'Til Next Time,
Health & Happiness,
Gordon
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