What does Wawrinka need to do to beat Nadal and win the French?

[bottle]

Three-Branched Hats

As people get to the top in any field, they gain power, and power corrupts, with absolute power corrupting absolutely. Not a new idea!

As some tour player's entourage grows and evolves, he becomes able to hire the best thinker in tennis (if only he can correctly identify him or her, probably Amelie Mauresmo).

These thinkers in Shakespearian courts and dukedoms were called "fools."

Okay, so you're the number one tennis player in the world, but your new coach constantly outdoes you in sudden perception and zingers.

You've paid him or her top dollar, so surely you will listen.

But the pressure is on him or her, too. Can Amelie think under this much pressure?

Can the king, duke or humongous player think as well as he did when he was coming up now that he has a person next to him who is wearing red pajamas with a trifurcated hat that has a cluster of bells on each branch?

Can either of these entities, the royal player or his fool, correctly figure out that if the player hits soft slice, Nadal will cream it?

Or has a basic idea like that, as Geoffrey Williams suggested, become too simple for these fancy people to arrive at?

[GeoffWilliams]

It is simple: don't hit a ball that gives the other guy a huge amount of confidence. (With Nadal the butt pick kid, it's slice that lays up.) Hit balls that cut down on his confidence. (Sharply angled shots that take him way out of court due to his depth off the baseline.)