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You will see players change their racket half way through a game. I think they are banned from doing that now, but they would change their racket because it doesn’t play right. And they’ll even include a weight for receiving – a little weight they can stick on for receiving, and they’d take them off for serving or vice versa. All sorts of little things that help a player’s sensitivity...

Or it might just be superstition?

Yeah, often it is. But it works because... the mental approach from a player... you know, he’d do anything to play better. So he’ll con himself. Well not exactly, because it’s true... you change your racket and perhaps it will work. And you’ll try anything to try to... Nobody likes losing.

Yeah... well there’s a bit of...  well it might like to... it might look like... I always think of the rule... never change a winning formula. So, they’ll keep trying new things until something works. I mean Goran Ivanisevic wanted that ball back. If he served an ace he wanted that ball back every time. And you know... you could say he was being superstitious, but at the same time... you know... if there might ... a slight benefit of that ball... it might be slightly quicker than all the others. So, scientifically it’s got a better chance of doing another ace hasn’t he?

It’s the regularity again, you see. You get a tin of balls - three will be the same pressure, one will be slightly different. Every box, or tin of balls – there’s always one in there that’s slightly flat.

Yeah.

You see, you can’t get anything dead right. You can get it very near right. But Ivanisevic was so sensitive that if he served an ace he could serve another ace the next ball if he got that ball.

Yeah.

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Goran Ivanisevic:
Superstitious or Supersensitive? >>>