Femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com, fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com Leonard-Zhukovsky-Shutterstock-photo-credit-Editorial-use
September 7, 2021,
Count your blessings.
Aren’t cliché’s wonderful? Important too. They are repeated over and over again for a reason.
Life can be kind to us, especially if we are wise enough to recognize it.
A wonderful spouse.
A beautiful home.
Plenty of money.
A job we love.
Cherished family and friends.
Good health.
If you have those tremendous benefits, do you stop and recognize how blessed you are?
Life blesses us in another way. Although a lot of people don’t seem to see it that way. Otherwise they would recognize it. What is it?
It is our day in the sun.
Our important life moment.
How do you recognize it? By doing something about it. Taking advantage of it. Making the most of it.
Most important, when you are in the middle of it, don’t be afraid.
It may only come once.
Now, let’s make something clear. We’re not talking about your 15 minutes of fame. Andy Warhol was quoted as stating, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”.
Perhaps true. Who are we to argue with the legendary Andy Warhol?
The problem with that is that sometimes you can become famous for the wrong reasons, like a very public DUI. Or saying something extremely foolish on your Social Media that grabs the nation’s attention.
So we’re not talking about that.
It is about recognizing your big moment in life to change your fortunes. Not just for the better. For the much better.
That kind of moment.
And you know what, strange as it sounds, most people seem to shy away from it. Almost as though they don’t deserve it. That someone else does.
Someone more famous, more handsome, more beautiful, wealthier, more popular, from a nicer family or some other low self-esteem jargon. Make that baloney.
We all deserve it. The key is that we need to recognize it and seize it.
Like Canada’s Leylah Fernandez.
She seems to recognize it at a very early age. Eighteen. Soon to be nineteen.
Naomi Osaka would probably agree with her.
Make that certainly agree.
On September 3, 2021, the two met in the third round on the largest stage in the tennis world.
Normally we would have expected Naomi to defeat an 18 year upstart in routine fashion. Given Naomi’s recent state of mind, which she has made very public, we weren’t sure which Naomi was going to show up.
Naomi struggled early on but still won a very close first set 7-5.
Yes, tighter than hoped for, but still, one set in the pocket.
Then things slowly started to crumble. This teenager was clearly not going away and as she began to outplay Naomi, the reigning US Open Champion began to melt. Emotionally. Mentally.
It was brutal to watch.
This teenager appeared to feed off of Naomi’s weakness. The more Naomi threw her racquet and took longer breaks, the more Leylah became energized while she worked the crowd with fist pumps, looking like she’s been on this grand stage easily 18 times.
But she hasn’t.
Leylah Annie Fernandez won her first WTA Tour singles title at the 2021 Monterrey Open.
In Mexico. Not on the coastline of California.
Yes, you read that right. First one. This year.
Not two or three years ago.
She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 66, achieved on June 14, 2021.
After this year’s Open, that will certainly improve.
You read that correctly too. Ranked sixty six, like route 66 which may be a highway headed to the US Open quarter finals.
She achieved her career-high doubles ranking of world No. 120 on June 21, 2021.
It’s like she came out of nowhere. Literally. No matter. She is here now and recognizes the life changing moment that she is in.
She finished off Naomi 7-6 (7-2) and 6-4.
The score was not remotely as close as it seems. Naomi was clearly not going to win this one.
What many of us wondered, as superb as Leylah played, was it more about Naomi faltering or her playing out of her mind.
Maybe a little of both.
We’ve seen this tape play out before over the years where the upstart gets intimidated by the moment and gets overwhelmed by the situation. Some are in awe of their legendary opponent and attribute too much prowess to them in a moment when they need to attribute everything positive to themselves.
Including that they have the right to be there. They’ve earned it.
Understanding that this is their moment and they have the right to win it. If only they believed in themselves.
Ms. Fernandez clearly believes in herself.
Next up is Germany’s super star Angelique Kerber.
In times past, it is in situations like these that we hope the upstart never upsets the reigning champion because, over the years, typically in the next round, the lower ranked winner goes up against another higher ranked player who completely flattens her as she comes back down to earth.
What that means for us as fans is that we get to watch a predictable drubbing in the next round whereas if the previous favorite had done her business, then we would have two highly ranked players facing off against one another.
We love Shelby Rogers.
Truly.
She just upset the world’s number one player, Ash Barty.
We wrote about it. Recently.
America’s Shelby Rogers Shocks Number One, Ash Barty
Next up for Shelby is Emma Raducanu.
Have you heard of her before? That’s what we thought.
Emma Raducanu is a British professional tennis player.
Her current ranking on August 23, 2021?
Number 150 in the world.
How many career WTA titles does she have? Zero. She has won three singles titles on the ITF Circuit.
Yes, you read that right.
What happened when she played Shelby Rogers in the next round?
She flattened Shelby, currently ranked number 43 in the world, 6-2 and 6-1 in very quick fashion.
Shelby came back down to earth. Crash landing.
Do you really believe that Ms. Raducanu would have done that to Ash Barty?
We’ve seen that scenario play out for thirty years with rare exceptions.
Leylah Fernandez is a rare exception.
That is starting to become extremely clear.
She battled Kerber in a tight first set but the former world number one player, winner of three Grand Slams, including the 2016 US Open, held the teenager at bay and won the first set 6-4.
Not a blowout but still, business as usual.
This is where Leylah is supposed to just feel good about being there, get patted on the head by the crowd and send Angie on to the next round where a real test would be waiting for her.
The real test came in the second set and Angie didn’t pass it.
Down 2-4 in the second set, Leylah didn’t falter and battled back to win the second set in a thrilling tie breaker 7-6 (7-5) and never looked back.
She dominated the number 16 seed 6-2 in the third set to win the match, smashing ground strokes, running Kerber from side to side, cleverly placing hard to reach drop shots and blasting down the line winners.
That is recognizing your moment.
And doing something about it. Believing in yourself. Knowing that you deserve it.
They may not come often, but we sense for Leylah, at this 2021 US Open, against all odds, it may come again.
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO Femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com, fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com Leonard-Zhukovsky-Shutterstock-photo-credit-Editorial-use
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leylah_Fernandez
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelique_Kerber
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Raducanu
