Malek Jaziri: I used to view a top 300 player as if he were Roger Federer
Malek Jaziri's mentality has changed a lot. The Tunisian player upset the former world no. 3 Grigor Dimitrov 12 months ago at the Dubai Tennis Championship and in an interview to The National, Jaziri said: “Because I have a cool mentality off the court. I just take my bag and go play and each time, I make sure I don’t make the same mistakes made by the person next to me. When I was young, I used to view a top 300 player as if he were Roger Federer. Like, ‘Wow, he’s 300 in the world’. Because I didn’t have tournaments in Tunisia, and I never saw that level live with my own eyes, only on TV. I wasn’t exposed to it, so I always thought it was impossible to defeat someone at that level. But step by step, I realised I could defeat these players. Then you defeat top 200 players, then top 100, and you keep moving up.”
Jaziri is from a complex country and he had to overcome a lot of difficulties to have success in tennis: "(The process was longer than for others, but the important thing is to get there. I’m not going to dwell on the past, today I am here and I want to improve. There’s no use in thinking about my past mistakes. You let go of the past but you don’t forget where you’ve come from and the moments you’ve passed through because those tough moments give you strength."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2SUfHMQ
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