PARIS — Watching Eugenie Bouchard suffer at the French Open on Tuesday and watching Simona Halep and Ernests Gulbis suffer on Wednesday, it was hard not to marvel at the game’s long-running success stories.
While last year’s luminaries, Bouchard and Gulbis, take the roller coaster back down the rankings, the Novak Djokovics and the Roger Federers have managed a much steadier ride through the seasons. Yes, they are phenomenally talented and well supported with longstanding teams of trainers, physiotherapists and dual coaches.
But there is something more at work, too.
“They make sure they don’t step into all the little holes,” said Gunter Bresnik, the veteran Austrian coach who has had to live with (and without) Gulbis in recent years.