Simona Halep and Bible Juice

Today was the start of what should have been Simona's journey towards her first Grand Slam win, and unfortunately today was the day that said journey ended. Don’t get me wrong she is still my favourite tennis player. I love her honesty and the lack of nasty streak that most athletes take and disguise it as a competitive attitude. And with her it does look like it comes from her and not the PR machine behind her. But can I just say that due to her inability to win her first game in Wimbledon this year, I got myself fairly inebriated.

It started well. Truth be told by the time I managed to find the game she was already 2-0 up and it looked like Simona went back to her former self: fast, swift, precise and as impressive as the amount of Patisserie Valerie’s and Cafe Concerto’s you can find between my gym and my flat. And just like my ambition to stop myself from becoming intoxicated on a regular basis and my struggle on a daily basis to avoid the cakes, tarts and chocolate went, just like that the light disappeared out of Simona’s eyes. It was like someone just decided to switch out the power. I could go into technical details, but what is the point? Between the number of double faults, unforced errors, times that she just could not hit that ball and the lack of strength from Simona's side I am impressed that it took the other girl (Jana Cepelova) three sets to win today.  If you know doubts as well as I do, you go and grab a glass and the bottle of Bible Juice and go crazy. Just because I did not want to feel the disappointment that started to creep in, I decided to turn this whole mess into a drinking game. So the Bible Juice bottle came out along with my trusted Karl (my Bible Juice glass that I shall soon be replacing for one of those 1litre beer jugs). So every time Simona made a mistake I took a swing of Bible juice. By the time the third set rolled in I was numb and could not make the difference between Simona hitting the net (e.g. an occurrence that happened often enough to allow me not to feel guilty that I skipped gym since my arm had quite the workout) and her actually playing like she knows how to. But like I said those doubts… Those kill you as they sneak in, fester and attack you when you least expect it. And you could see it in her face, the desire to be perfect and the moment when the pressure just got to her.

The not drinking rule lasted for less that 48h and it was as short as Simona's stay at Wimbledon.

So as the end of the game came, I was happy that I decided to cancel my Muay Thai K-Boxing class as soon as Karl came out.

I am getting back to my writing now. That novel will not write itself. But if I learned a thing today is the following: when you try to do everything perfect you forget to enjoy what you loved in the first place...

Same thought... Different circumstances...