US Open at Flushing Meadow

Great piece. Very brave of him.

I would've liked it if he'd delved more into how to treat anxiety (beyond medication, which he mentioned.)

The gold standard is cognitive behavioral therapy. It's the only thing proven to work. And often the meds help CBT to be initiated ... Then the meds are weaned off while the therapy continues.

One of the tenets of CBT is gradual exposure. So if his therapist had been in the car on the way to the Federer match, the therapist might have suggested simply attempting to arrive at Flushing Meadow. If that worked, perhaps simply stepping on the court-- with the assurance that he could step off at any time. Then perhaps make it through the warmup, etc etc. Any small step would be framed as a major victory, as opposed to just staying in the car.

Simply saying he didn't have to play the match-- doesn't meet the anxiety head-on. Of course that's easier said than done when you're in full-on panic attack.

But he had the luxury of not having to play that match. Most of us don't have the option not to do our jobs. And for people with anxiety, they have to learn techniques to deal with it. What he practiced in that particular case was avoidance, which only makes the anxiety worse.

That being said, damn. Good luck to him, and I'm so glad he's talking about this.

 

Wow. That really was phenomenal.

 

Serena just lost her first set to fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

 

What in the world does she have on her head?

 

I think you're looking at this all wrong.

 

Serena held a 15-40 lead that would have gotten her back on serve at 4-5 and lost the next four points, including a volley smash at the net that she hit long. Then she led 15-40 again with a chance to go up a break at 2-0 in the second set and lost the next four points. She's now again ahead 15-40 and mishits a second serve long and then hits another into the net. Deuce.

 

Yeah, well, that, too.

 

And unforced errors again cost Serena a chance to break. Tirico just said second straight 15-40 hole that Mattek-Sands escaped, but it was actually third straight.

 

I just glanced at the match stats. Serena has 26 winners to Mattek-Sands' 11, but she has 19 unforced errors to Bethanie's four.

About says it all.

 

Although the Googles tell me that Ms. Mattek-Sands makes some questionable style choices from time to time.

 

Another great stat -- Serena has converted only one of her 12 service break opportunities. That's 1-for-12.