Tennisers of the World, Unite! The topspin blog

Although we just had the men's and women's semis, I want to talk briefly about the quarters.
First, Serena watched her sister piss away match points and her shot, flaming out in a blaze of shit tennis. In her own quarterfinal, Serena looked dead, down a set and 4-0. The vultures circled. Her leg was all taped up, her back seemed completely immobile. But she made a decision. She was going to win. She won 5 straight games, took the tiebreak, and, with minimal movement, took the deciding set.

Next came TMF against Davydenko. From the first shot, Davydenko was dominant. It wasn't that Fed looked bad- he had no air to breathe. Davydenko took all his time away, had answers for all his shots. Other than the legendary French Open final against Rafa, Fed has never been dominated like this. Down a set (two breaks), and then quickly down a break in the second, it looked like a match where one couldn't even imagine Fed coming back- there was just no time and space for him to play his game. Then Fed again faced break points to go down a second break. Fed fought hard, forced Davydenko into a rally and Kolya muffed a shot into the net. It was into that tiny crack that Federer jammed his racquet and heaved on it like a lever. Federer found a way to raise his game. On his next service game, he faced 0-40. He served five first serves (3 aces) and took the game. That is not a Davydenko collapse, that is a Fed aliya (aliya is the Hebrew word for rising up). Facing that, Davydenko did collapse, and Fed soared higher. He won that set, then took the third 6-0.
In that span, Fed went from being dominated to winning an incredible 13 STRAIGHT GAMES! He took the match in a fiercely contested fourth set, 7-5.

What happened there? What we saw is what separates Fed and other real champions from the mass of great players: under the heaviest pressure, almost every player on tour tends to play worse. Fed plays better. And given the chance to reverse that pressure, we see the stark difference as the opponent usually fails to do the same. Facing a foe Fed could not beat at the level he was playing, Fed patiently waited for an opening and the took his game to another level. Davydenko, facing the same, collapsed.

Serena and Fed have not dominated their eras solely because of skill, but will. They hate to lose more than their opponents, and they have the strength of will to stop it from happening.