First Grand Slam of the year in the books. We had a great few weeks in Melbourne after Brisbane.
First of all very satisfied with the training week we had. We were able to do basically everything we set out to do. With the new (its been there for a few years now) National Tennis Center that the players can also use for training i think we have some great possibilities to practice in Melbourne now. Great gym over there as well as recovery. Everything you need really to become a professional tennis player. Every time i step in to that building i get jealous of the possibilities that the kids have here in Australia.
First match of the tournament was a tricky one. As many times in fact. This time a break down in the fifth set vs Klizan. With great strength, determination and a bit of luck Stan managed to escape a first round exit. From there on the game sort of kicked in a gear and he played really well the rest of the way.
The semifinal vs Federer was a bit strange. Roger played so well the first 2 sets. Fast and taking time away from Stan. He was also serving so well. Then all of a sudden the match turned. Stan relaxed a bit. Got a bit lucky at a few points and was able to almost turn things around and win. Stan had a few breakpoints in the beginning of the fifth set but then Roger suddenly broke Stan in the middle of set and served it out for a place in the final. However I could not be more happy with the fighting spirit. We had some issues with the knee the whole tournament that we will now take care of. Stan is seeing his personal doctor on Monday. Next up is Rotterdam if everything is going as planned.
Personally I will now go back and work at the academy back home. I know it will be a lot of work on my desk when i arrive and I’m looking forward to that. When I’m home I’m on the court everyday with our players and coaches. This year I will be working with our older players and mainly the boys. We have a unique set up at our academy I think. We have 11 full time coaches on around 20 players. We are therefore very selective with the groups and the players that we have. We don’t have the best facilities to be honest but what we are doing I’m quite proud about. We put all our recourses on the court. Sometimes I think to myself it would be a better investment to put more money in to marketing. Like a nice homepage, nice marketing material or nice looking reports for the academy but every time I come back to why we started the academy. Then the choice is easy to keep investing more in the program and whats happening on the court.
We have done many mistakes for sure during the fist 5 years since we started our academy. Hopefully we learn along the way. One of the mistakes is being way to generous with giving out scholarships and financial support without anything in return. Good to Great has given multiple million Euro in support to different players with the help of our partners. Many times we have financed the travel, hotel bills and other expenses without asking for a penny back. We have done this because we wanted to help. It has not had the effect I was hoping for. I think we have been a little bit to generous. A little bit to naive perhaps also. I have changed my opinion about financial support to players. I don’t think we are doing players a favour with just giving support without any sort of pay back. We have sort of created a mentality where you take without saying thanks and where its common to take without understanding the actual support given. This has changed from 1 January. We will be way more strict with this in the future.
Anyway Im looking forward to work at our high performance center again. BUT first 4 days to recharge in Dubai on the way home:)
Hope you will enjoy the great finals in Melbourne coming up this weekend and that you are having a great time.
All the best for now,
Magnus
