Note from Pete:
Wait until you get a load of what Miguel Seabra has for us from Estoril today!
Thanks, Mikey:
Quarter-finals day here – and there’s been a flock of visitors coming over all the way from neighbouring Spain to check on their players, who usually do well here. It’s like some sort of sporting pilgrimage, but there’s another kind of pilgrimage related to the Estoril Open (and to the 1990 French Open, and 2000 Masters Cup titles) that’s worth mentioning.
The tale is actually mind-boggling – a story of faith and devotion that makes you think twice about human nature and the power of believing in such an individualistic sport as tennis. Here it is: there’s a big Catholic sanctuary here in Portugal, 88 miles north of Lisbon, in a place called Fatima, where the Virgin Mary made several appearances to three shepherd children between May and October 1917.
No one believed the kids at the time, and they went through dire straits because everyone thought they were making up the story. But the Virgin kept showing up exactly in the days the little shepherds predicted, and the last one was a miracle witnessed by 70.000 people. If you’re interested in the story, you can find more details over here.
Like most south Europeans, I had a Catholic education, but I am way too rational to believe in mystical explanations. Nonetheless, what happened to Andres Gomez and to Gustavo Kuerten, the beloved Guga, related to Fatima can it provides some food for thought.
In 1990, the popular Ecuadorian Andres Gomez was facing some sort of personal crisis. He came here to play the first edition of the Estoril Open in 1990 and lost to Juan Aguilera, a stylish Spaniard who had a beautiful sliced backhand and actually won a couple of big clay court titles (including Hamburg, twice). Gomez had lost his confidence, his faith in his game, and, at 30, he was considering retirement.
Having lost in the first round, Gomez decided to take advantage of the transportation services provided by the tournament and requested that a driver take him on a visit to the Fatima sanctuary. Joining him were his wife and the parents of the Argentinean player, Guillermo Perez-Roldan.
What happened next? Well, Gomez won Barcelona the following week (beating none other than Perez-Roldan in the finals!).Then he won again in Madrid and, ultimately, he captured his only Grand Slam just weeks later at Roland Garros - the tournament he always wanted to win, but where he usually had to face Ivan Lendl. That year, Lendl was out of his way and Gomez beat Thomas Muster (who was having an exceptional run on clay that year as well) and the overwhelming favourite, Andre Agassi, in what remains one of the all-time great upsets in a Grand Slam final.
A very interesting detail in that Gomez performance at the European clay courts that year was his loss to Thomas Muster in Rome. The big Ecuadorian was playing great and Muster was in form as well; Muster eventually won in a tight three-set semi-final (5-7, 6-4, 7-6) at the Foro Italico and afterwards Gomez said something like, “You don’t show everything you’ve got in Rome because you can meet the same guy at Roland Garros”.
You know what the score was at the French Open? 7-5, 6-1, 7-5, to Gomez! BTW, I thought of this episode just weeks ago, after the Monte Carlo final; can it be that Roger Federer isn’t showing Rafa Nadal everything he’s got before Paris?
Anyway, the amazing story of Gomez’s pilgrimage always comes up whenever I meet Pato Rodriguez, the veteran Chilean coach who was coaching Gomez at the time. Pato even shared the story this week with his new protégé, Vince Spadea, but I don’t know if the tennis rapper even thought of going to Fatima.
Another famous victory related to Fatima was Guga’s at the Masters Cup in Lisbon, six years ago. The Brazilian star came to Portugal trailing Marat Safin in the 2000 rankings and, since the elite year-end event was played indoors, no one gave Guga a chance to win. That was doubly true after he lost to Andre Agassi in his opening round-robin match. Jorge Sakeld, his agent from Octagon, was here this week as well and we recalled that after the Agassi match Guga’s back was so bad he couldn’t even pull his trousers up at the locker room. He was seriously thinking about quitting the event.
Well, Guga’s mum and some other members of his family went to Fatima. The prayers must have reached someone up there, because Guga’s severe back condition improved and he was able to beat Magnus Norman and Yevgeny Kafelnikov to make it to the semi-finals. Then he beat none other than the great Pete Sampras, staying way back to return Pistol Pete’s serve, and smacking those huge backhands down the line to win.
Suddenly, finishing No. 1 in the world was a distinct possibility for Guga. He needed to win the tournament, and for Safin to lose before the final. Well, Marat lost to Agassi in the other semi. Then, after that scintillating display against Sampras, the gangly Brazilian went on to beat Agassi, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, to clinch the No. 1 spot in the absolutely last match of the ATP season.
I always thought that in order to be a great tennis champion you had to have faith – any kind of faith, be it religious, or simply faith in oneself. For instance, Roger Federer is the master technician and tactician and has a lot of confidence in his abilities, but I don’t see him with a lot of faith when he plays Nadal.
But to me, the best example of lack of tennis faith is… Lindsay Davenport. I like Lindsay a lot and have a lot of respect for her and even for her game, but Lindsay’s perennial lack of faith and her inability to use emotions to take her beyond her limits really strikes me. She is an intelligent, articulate woman – but way too logical, methodical, clinical, and rational. Reason can only take you so far; you have to have faith to get past that and usually a champion (which by definition is someone who has huge faith in himself) knows how to use emotions on his behalf.
Not Davenport, though. She should have learnt something in last year’s intense Wimbledon final against Venus, a champion who showed a lot of faith and emotion. Lindsay knows she can beat anybody. . .in two sets; if it’s three sets, everybody knows Lindsay is beatable. I wish Lindsay could smile a little bit more, have more faith. . .and win another Slam.
Two other amazing tales of faith involve Andre Agassi and Arantxa Sanchez. Both of their mothers had such difficulties while carrying those two champs that doctors advised them to terminate their pregnancies. So, two champions were born because their mothers believed in God and abortion went against their religion!
Some other tales of faith and devotion can be found in your own Big Pedro’s (that’s Peter Bodo to you) book The Courts of Babylon – the stories of players going to the Philippines to be treated by faith healers are actually very creepy. I first knew about that in Richard Evan’s book ‘Vijay!’, about Vijay Amritraj, who was once cured (temporarily) of tennis elbow by a Philippine faith healer.
In his book, Pete writes about similar experiences with Ivan Lendl and Miloslav Mecir. I got to talk to both about the Filipino connection and they were really upset and uncomfortable; they even refused to talk about it in the beginning!
I met Lendl in a celebrity golf event here in Portugal and he eventually told me how a faith healer fixed a shoulder injury for him in 1988, when doctors were advising surgery. He also said it was a delicate matter - a lot of people wouldn’t understand. Then I met Mecir on a Davis Cup tie between Slovakia and Portugal and brought up the subject; the faith healer experience didn’t work for him and he actually retired because of the back problems that even the faith healer could not solve.
So, I would like to know what you think about the role of faith (religious or not) in personal success. Is it more important than a technically sound game, or tactical clairvoyance? If you were to pick someone to fight for your life, who would you pick – an emotionless Bjorn Borg or someone who would use is emotions to reach beyond his limits like a John McEnroe? Or someone who would get into some kind of a trance like Monica Seles?
Latest news from the Estoril Open:
- On his way to the hairdresser at the Sponsors Village to cut his hair, Marat Safin twisted his ankle. It’s looking bad.
- Justin Gimelstob just lost to Albert ‘Dropshot Dragon’ Portas, 6-4, 6-3, putting up a very decent fight at the Centralito. Justin looks happy, especially after being featured on a fashion photo shoot, pretending he is an old school player.
- Carlos Moya is looking good as well, after beating Spanish nemesis Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 7-6, 6-4.
I’ll be back Monday, wrapping up Estoril week with some closing thoughts!
- Miguel Seabra, in Estoril