Biggest loser always wins
The value of a personal win
Why is losing so hard, have we missed the essential part of winning?
I think today’s match between Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek has sort of answered this question.
A few truths should be laid out first:
- You only lose if you don’t learn.
- Losing is expected.
- To be great you have to lose.
Losing is a life non-contract, contract. It’s also a much needed mineral in the soil of competition. If we can agree on these things, keep reading.
The Curation of Greatness
It takes a Federer to have a Nadal, it takes both to have a Djokovic. Aspiration to be the best takes beating the best as Coco rightly pointed out. There’s no Muhammad Ali without George Foreman. Pick a sport. Competition is about dethroning and asserting your place. You have to have the cajones to take what’s not handed to you and then have enough juice to be stingy about giving it back.
Figuring out the playing field and then owning all the numbers is not an easy task in tennis or in life. Carving out that winning game takes losing on and off the field. There’s an honesty that comes from losing. It’s undeniable. You face the fact that you are not better than _____________. To win, you have to convert that conversation by doing what it absolutely takes.
You’re the only one who could do this impossible thing and make it possible. Only you can decide when you’ve lost enough to learn how to win.
0–7 Yesterday, 1–7 today, Coco Gauff beats #one
Coco lost 7 times to our WTA #1 Iga Swiatek before today. In a spectacular 3 set thriller, she broke the losing streak. On the men’s side, Gael Monfils officially has the record for the highest number of times a player has lost to another player. His record is now 0–19 against Djokovic.
This is the same Gael who gave us one of the best matches during the first round of the French Open this year. I watched Gael Monfils do the absolute unthinkable freshly back from paternity leave. With his fitness level down, cramping and very affected by the moment he beat Sebastian Baez. Later he called it, the “greatest win of his career!”
It was. To see it you would have felt the energy and desire to not give up from Gael. Against the odds he pushed himself. It was a truly spectacular affair.
Watching Coco’s match I saw a resigned determination not to lose just as I’d seen in Gael’s match. I had predicted a three set match but I wasn’t sure she could do it. I knew she would win a set. Something she hasn’t done in the 7 previous times she lost to Iga Swiatek. I was so confident I told my father. He’s a Coco fanatic who’s been dealing with his friends putting down his sense of tennis because he keeps believing in Coco.
M is for Momentous
Momentous wins are different. They are linked to personal achievements. They are the milestones of careers. For Gael, at the French Open he proved to himself that he could win after paternity leave and injury. For Coco her win validated her hopes and ability to beat the best. Both wins were turning points and stamps of self approval. The doubt was clear, the impossibility, the reality of not knowing, the sense of believing.
The learning you get from the losing is priceless fuel to the next level. So maybe winning is better understood as losing and learning.
2 awful H2H records| 1 French Open win | 1 Cinci Open win
Personal achievements don’t compare to titles.
One is a marriage, the other is a wedding ring.
Personal achievements hit different. The work it takes, the commitment, the knowledge of yourself in the face of crowds and opposition. It’s not easy to push yourself and dig deep into your self-belief. To watch Coco do this today was sublime.
Cheers to beating fears. Cheers to validating self belief. Cheers to finding courage to win after losing. And finally, cheers to doing the impossible thing in your path.
Tennis lesson of the day
Win at your race and at your pace. Learn as you lose.
lOVE All, dEUCES
