Asked by Tennis Break News on mental health following the excellent Netflix documentary on Mardy Fish (Untold : Breaking Point) l’ancien 36e world, Florent Serra, spoke of the stress he could feel during his matches.
“Stress manifested itself in a number of ways. I had hives between 2004 and 2008. Sometimes I would wake up with a swollen eye, I didn’t know why. It was episodic and I never knew why I had it. I also tended to be nervous before or during big events, I could be afraid of not being up to par, I could be timid against very well ranked players. Maybe I wasn’t confident enough in my abilities, there was probably an inferiority complex. A lot of things on the mental plane are conditioned by the way in which one has been educated. Me, I was brought up in the culture of humility and discretion, I think that it played in the way of playing at certain times. You have to have a lot of self-esteem, a very strong ego, a desire to step on the opponent to win headlines. “
Posted on Sunday, December 12, 2021 at 13:22
