Munich – AZ interview with Mats Wilander: The 56-year-old Swede is a seven-time Grand Slam champion and was number one in the tennis world rankings for 20 weeks. Today he works as an expert for Eurosport.
AZ: Mr. Wilander, Corona is also turning everything upside down in Melbourne. Shortly before the start of the Australian Open, nobody knows whether and how this first Grand Slam of the year will take place. What can we expect from players who have been in the hotel for weeks?
MATS WILANDER: Of course you are not as prepared as you would like to be. But in professional tennis there are such situations more often, sometimes because of an injury, sometimes because of a lack of match practice. We can expect them to go out on the pitch and do their best no matter how much or how little they have trained before. And you and I won’t be able to tell the difference whether someone feels well or less well prepared.
Nadal and Djokovic: “There’s no one who hates losing anymore”
Because the conditions are more or less the same?
No. If you are not one hundred percent physically prepared, the mental part plays an even more important role, and the mental strength of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, of Serena Williams and Simona Halep, makes them the best players in the world. In this respect they are much better than the others – Dominik Thiem now also plays in this league. He learned so much from winning the US Open! So if this category of players are not one hundred percent physically fit, they don’t care. You are there so as not to lose to the person on the other side. That’s the only thing that matters in your life right now. If that is no longer the most important thing in life, they will no longer play games. There is no one who hates losing more than Rafa and Novak. That’s the biggest difference between them and the rest.
