Net Notes: When things go wrong, change up your game

It was disappointing to watch two elite-level tennis players — one male, one female — fail to adapt to the flow of events in the finals of the French Open.

I'll first congratulate Justine Henin-Hardenne and Rafael Nadal on their dominating performances in the Paris finals. They both showed the touch and power that complete a clay-court masters game.

The disappointment was in Kim Clijsters and Roger Federer's inability — or rather their seeming unwillingness — to adjust to the situation in which they found themselves.

There is an old adage in tennis that you aren't playing against a clock, so you are never beaten until the last ball is struck. Well, it appears Clijsters and Federer substituted stubbornness for a clock and kept on ticking themselves deeper and deeper into a losing rut.

The pattern of the points and the trail of errors usually is acted upon by top-level players in an effort to change a rising tide of confidence that is carrying their opponents and bolstering their confidence and bravado.

The age-old advice is to always change a losing game.

When you find yourself behind the 8-ball in a tennis match, you mustn't keep banging your head against the wall and hoping your opponent will suddenly choke.

Create a choking environment for them to play through.

Change spins and speeds and the height of the bounce on your shots.

Play a little slower or faster between points.

History is a great teacher, yet you first must have an awareness of the events as they truthfully take place.

Then you need to display the guts to admit you must change in order to succeed.