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Agony and Suffering of a Shattered Player
11 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
I have never seen a tennis player suffer in agony like Michelle Larcher De Brito tonight at the U.S. Open qualies.
Larcher was winning her match against Elena Svitolina comfortably, up 6-2 5-0 with a match point – to reach the third and final round of qualies.
But she blew the match point and the next eight games, before inevitably losing the match. She was broken at 4-all and cried at her changeover chair into a towel. She cried earlier in the match and also in her narrow first round win on Tuesday.
But this time it was worse. Far worse. A 5-love lead was blown. Svitolina served for the match and after each point she won in the game, Larcher seemed to pause and cry. Then she’d refocus and try again. She could not escape her fate though. Svitolina was a little stronger, a little better. After match point, Larcher fell to her knees at the baseline and wept uncontrollably for a good 20 seconds. Her conqueror waited at the net to shake hands but Larcher ignored her and the chair umpire, and in complete agony and tears, she picked up her bags and got out of there. Absolutely and totally devastated.
I’ve never seen a player so completely shattered by a loss, well, wait a second, maybe Lisicki when she blew the match against Zvonareva at the French Open last year. That was difficult to watch. But Lisicki somehow managed to rebound from that defeat and became an impact player.
Larcher, once a hyped future star after a positive losing performance to Serena years ago, has been trying for years to be an impact player on the WTA tour and so far she has come up short. She is ranked #118 now and has earned over $400,000 in prize money but she only has just over 20 career WTA level wins so far. Her career high ranking was #76 in July 2009. To her credit, she is a relentless fighter, never gives up and tries as hard as any player in the sport ever did. She pumps fists after almost every point, she implores herself on constantly, using up so much energy on self motivation antics. Though the decibel level of her screaming and grunting was not as loud as it once was. But the problem is she doesn’t have a big weapon, just a bulldog mentality and a good consistency from the backcourt.
The crowd watching the match did not get behind her at any point, which certainly did not help her cause. Poor Michelle, fought her heart out, but she was all alone out there with nobody in her corner.
Larcher De Brito is 19 now and you have to wonder if she will ever be able to overcome a tragic loss like this one. 5-love lead and match point but she could not close it out. Once again failing to make the main draw at the U.S. Open (she has made it twice). You have to wonder how many more chances will she get, and even if she does, will she be able to improve her game and weapons to threaten the top players?
It was disturbing and painful as an observer to see a tennis player endure such enormous suffering like Larcher De Brito did tonight, right before our eyes. You wondered, if she might even jump a bridge tonight. Or do something drastic. After so many years of disappointing results, so many heartbreaking losses, will she be able to regalvanize herself and pick up the pieces after what is perhaps the worst loss of them all? If she can it will be a wonderful story, one of the great comebacks of this sport.
I love tennis and everything about it, but what I saw tonight was one of the saddest things I have ever seen inside the sporting arena. This was the brutal, heartbreaking agony of defeat, in living color.
Patrick · August 24, 2012 at 5:19 am
Yeah, I don’t think I would have enjoyed watching that.
Dan Markowitz · August 24, 2012 at 9:41 am
Nice report, Scoop. How does she lose a match she’s up 6-2, 5-0 in? That’s pretty frustrating. But not to shake the other girl’s hand at the end of the match, sounds like a bad sport or too much self-pity.
Did you see Dustin Brown play?
Thomas Tung · August 24, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Man, am I glad I didn’t see that one Scoop … I feel really sorry for her. Hopefully all will go well for her, whether it’s in or out of tennis. Makes me wonder, too, how Cvitolina must feel — if I were in her shoes, I’d feel pretty bad for De Brito.
Scoop Malinowski · August 24, 2012 at 1:02 pm
Dan I got there at 5-4 in the second and moments later it was 5-4. A Russian junior there told me that it was 5-0 and I couldn’t believe it. At 5-4 MLDB was holding it together emotionally but you just knew when she lost the set it was going to be big trouble for her in the third. She got broke early and then broke back and hung tough as she could but her opponent was fired up too and was a lil too tough. Saw Dustin play, he looked sharp, he was winning the first set I assume he won. Was totally memserized by the Larcher match and couldn’t leave it. That’s where I found Michael, sitting in the front row snapping Larcher in the last game, he’s everywhere. )
mertov · August 25, 2012 at 12:10 am
I watched her at Wimbledon qualifying. She did the same thing in the match that she lost. She was crying already 2-3 points before the match ended and played the whole match point making choking sounds and crying..
Scoop Malinowski · August 25, 2012 at 1:02 am
It’s really painful to watch isn’t it Mert? To see such a nice person under such excruciating duress. Tennis is supposed to be fun not torture. I Biofiled her and interviewed her a another time and she is the sweetest player you could ever meet. Nicer than nice. God I hope she comes back from this and can have a successful career. Thanks for commenting and welcome to the site.
Andrew Miller · August 25, 2012 at 1:23 am
Yeah it’s brutal to lose a match that way. That said, tennis is not just about winning, but losing. How do you lose? Do you go down without a fight? Do you freeze up? Do you learn from it?
Part of what makes the sport addicted. Tough for this kid – who knows.
One thing that goes against the WTA tour – at some level, it’s lack of variety. At the top echelon, there’s some variety ( not ATP variety of shot, but there is some variety ). It’s been proven that these days you can’t just be a ball basher to win on the WTA tour.
But for the 19 year old – hey, she’s a young girl and I think like the ATP side, we haven’t seen phenoms recently on the WTA. The phenoms of yesteryear, now older, are still winning everything.
Got to wonder, yet again – is experience winning out on both tours? Do you have to be fit AND tough AND mature to win on tour?
I think about the magic 8 ball that my family used to have. You’d shake it and it would give answers like “Ask Again Later”, “Not Now”, “It is Certain” and “Signs Point to Yes”. I tend to think though with the slam monopoly at the top – with the Sharapovas and Williams’ continuing to lock up the tour titles (Azarenka is tough, but she’s no newbie!), that experience is becoming key.
If you are really young and you are gunning for a slam on tour, you better have a game that matches up or bring something special out there. Nadal did, but that was in 2005. Today’s a new day. I don’t think 2005’s Nadal would win slams – otherwise we’d be crowning Raonic champ, and despite quite the game he’s not going past a slam quarterfinal.
Maybe this tournament he will. But if I shook the magic 8 ball my family used to have, and ask if it thought that any teenagers on tour would win slam in the near future, I think it would answer, “Ask Again Later.”
Michael · August 25, 2012 at 2:14 am
It was a tough watch but truth be told it was entertaining in a watching a slo-mo train wreck sort of way. No one left that match during the third. I saw it from the beginning and at one point remarked to a friend that we won’t see the usual theatrics because she’s killing the girl. Then she didn’t close out at 5-0. One break you thought, OK no problem. After the second break you got the sense that this is not going to end well.
I’ve seen most (maybe all) of her USO matches and usually she is the huge crowd favorite (as Scoop said she’s very nice and she comes across well to the fans. Unlike Azarenka and Sharapova people find her screaming more amusing then annoying and I always get a kick out of the reaction of little kids that haven’t seen her before).
But last night there was a small, vocal (but not in an over-the-line way) crew for the other player. So Michelle is crying (literally) and this group is cheering for the other player.
Also to add to the situation someone near me threw up (which you saw Scoop). All told had to be the wackiest match of the week.
Steve · August 25, 2012 at 1:39 pm
OUCH!
mertov · August 27, 2012 at 2:23 am
Hi Scoop,
Yes it is excruciating to watch, but I must add that there is also something wrong with it. The emotions are too extreme, and in my opinion, she really needs a coach or a mental guide person to make her understand that it is not ok to elevate impulsively to such high/low extremes when you win a point/match or when you lose a point/match. Her reactions every time she wins a point are the most exagerated I have seen and she does it constantly throughout the match, plus she does the same the other way when she loses them.
When you are pyschologically experiencing emotional ups-and-downs to this violent extreme, I see it as, in a way, you are preparing your heavy defeats from which you will take longer and longer periods of time to recover.
Scoop Malinowski · August 27, 2012 at 1:21 pm
There is something abnormal with it, agree Mert. She almost is putting too much pressure on herself. Way too much. She argued a line call that was clearly on the sideline (it was right in front of us) and she had this laugh/smile on her face while pleading emphatically with the chair ump, it was weird. Accumulated losses like these seem to be damaging Michelle LDB, not making her stronger. Agree, she goes through too many extreme emotions, relies too much on emotional adrenaline. But it’s probably because she realizes her game is just not strong enough to get the job done on it’s own. And there might not be any physical way for her to ascend to a higher level. Tennis is a brutal sport when you consider there are so many players like her who work their tails off, devote/sacrifice so much to tennis, but aren’t able to achieve the desired results. Really hope she can turn it around and find the winning touch.