Tennis Channel<\/a>, you\u2019ll see tears in the teenager\u2019s eyes after losing. Borg wasn\u2019t a drama queen but you never doubted his, or Federer\u2019s, desire.<\/p>\nI don\u2019t know if I doubt Gasquet\u2019s desire. I just don\u2019t see it. It\u2019s in his game. I\u2019d have to think hard to name another player who goes for such big shots from anywhere on the court. And though screaming and yelling are not the only expressions of deep desire, you can usually see it somewhere if you look hard enough.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t remember Andre Agassi<\/b> screaming and yelling but he certainly acted out. It wasn\u2019t just the bleached hair, earrings, and \u2018do rag. He was clearly trying to fit his personality into his game. He was another player who had trouble making the transition from child prodigy to self-motivated professional tennis player.<\/p>\n
Agassi finally had to take a break from the tour and hang out in a therapist\u2019s office before he could work out his issues. Gasquet comes from a similar place: tennis coach parents, cover of a French tennis magazine when he was nine years old, the hope of French tennis.<\/p>\n
Andy Murray<\/b> I have no doubts about. He wants it. He\u2019s still in his immature, yelling at himself phase – the phase most players grow out of when they get to the main tour – but you can hear the desire in his yellling.<\/p>\n
One more sign of his immaturity: he can\u2019t keep a coach. He doesn\u2019t agree with the coach. He knows better. Today he fired Brad Gilbert<\/b>, his garrulous supercoach of the past year and a half.<\/p>\n
Maybe Murray will be like Federer. He knows the game of tennis well enough, and his own game in particular, and doesn\u2019t need a coach. Strategically that might be true but physically he still needs to improve and how could you not benefit from the best coach in the game even if he is a motormouth?<\/p>\n
I think Murray will be in the final eight at the end of next year but you never know what it\u2019ll take to push someone to his full potential.<\/p>\n
That article about Federer describes a huge turning point in his life. His juniors coach and mentor, Peter Carter<\/b>, died in a car accident when Federer was 20 years old. It marked his passage from adolescence to manhood. Federer had been a highly skilled but erratic player and now he became a mentally tough player.<\/p>\n
The next coach Murray gets, if he gets one, will be paid out of Murray\u2019s pocket. Until Murray fired him, Britain\u2019s Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) was paying $1.5 million a year for Gilbert\u2019s services. Maybe that\u2019s the way Murray wants it to be. Maybe that\u2019s a sign of maturity.<\/p>\n
For sure it marks Murray\u2019s passage from LTA foster child to self-supporting tennis professional and that\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n
As for Gasquet, I\u2019ll keep looking and see what I find.<\/p>\n\n
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