There is a glory in imperfection
Andy Roddick and I have something in common besides being North American white males: Michael Russell is one of our favorite tennis players. Andy said it after their first-round US Open match last night, just after I discovered it. In their match last night, Russell repeatedly tested a recently-injured and out-of-practice but still much-favored Roddick for almost 3 hours before eventually losing in 4 sets, 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 5-7. No matter how bleak things looked he just wouldn't give up, which is apparently standard for him. In fact, he refused to give up for so long that it often looked like he might just prevail anyway. And when he finally did lose after all, it was in a gracious manner. Like he knew it was probably going to happen but hadn't been letting it bother him.
One could hardly blame him if he did make this assumption. Mr. Russell now holds the US Open record for appearances without a victory at 0-7. He's also 6-23 lifetime in Grand Slam tournaments. He's doubtless not proud of either of these records, but he keeps plugging along anyway at what he (I assume) loves to do, earning the comment in the past from John McEnroe that "no one's going to try harder on a tennis court than Michael Russell."
To someone like me who has perfectionism issues out the wazoo, Russell sounds like a guy to emulate. Additional facets of truth are that Roddick himself is seeded only 21st in this year's Open, coming off of recent injury and just trying to survive and play his way into form to hopefully contend again this year in a tournament he won in 2003.
I found the whole thing a timely reminder from a surprising source that there is no such thing as being perfect, and better yet, it doesn't have to matter.
One could hardly blame him if he did make this assumption. Mr. Russell now holds the US Open record for appearances without a victory at 0-7. He's also 6-23 lifetime in Grand Slam tournaments. He's doubtless not proud of either of these records, but he keeps plugging along anyway at what he (I assume) loves to do, earning the comment in the past from John McEnroe that "no one's going to try harder on a tennis court than Michael Russell."
To someone like me who has perfectionism issues out the wazoo, Russell sounds like a guy to emulate. Additional facets of truth are that Roddick himself is seeded only 21st in this year's Open, coming off of recent injury and just trying to survive and play his way into form to hopefully contend again this year in a tournament he won in 2003.
I found the whole thing a timely reminder from a surprising source that there is no such thing as being perfect, and better yet, it doesn't have to matter.