In the first quarter of 2022 alone, top-level tennis experienced at least three episodes that once again put the pressure that is experienced in this sport in the eye of the hurricane: Daniil Medvedev called a chair umpire in the Australian OpenNaomi Osaka burst into tears in Indian Wells after hearing a fan’s insult and Ashleigh Bartynumber 1 in the world, announced his retirement in an untimely manner arguing that “I realized that I no longer had that physical or emotional strength that being at the highest level demands.”
The tennis it has become a platform where more and more of its members fall into emotional crises before the age of 30. Although some like their own Osaka y Barty have revealed that they entered therapy to try to overcome these situations, at other points in their career they relapsed into frustration, rethinking the question about how important the accompaniment of mental health specialists is in this sport.
“From now on, modern high-performance tennis has to deal with a coaching staff and a psychologist who has to be helping players stay balanced. The first thing is for the tennis player to be clear about his objectives, to stay as balanced as possible from an emotional point of view and to be morally indestructible, that everything in the environment does not affect him and that, most of the time, the athlete he can’t do it alone, he needs specialists to help him,” he says. Fernando Ochoa, tennis coach with more than 38 years of experience and Doctor in Exercise Sciences from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (UANL).
There are cases of tennis players who start their career at the age of four and at 15 or 16 are already part of professional circuits of the ATP y WTA; the most outstanding get to be placed in high positions in the world ranking before the age of 20, as is currently the case with the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz (ninth in the world at 18 years old) and others ascend diametrically in a matter of days, as happened with Emma Raducanu by winning a Grand Slam (US Open 2021, also 18 years old).
This context gives them recognition and business opportunities, which in turn leads to better income. However, if there is no adequate emotional preparation, it can become an untenable situation from an early age.
“There is something for which the human being is never prepared: to be successful and more so because we live in a culture in which those who start to do well are criticized. This part is tremendous work, because overnight tennis players begin to earn stratospheric amounts in which if they don’t have the culture and work to take it naturally they begin to lose ground, to live with respect to the environment and forget about that they are human beings, they begin to live according to what others demand of them. In this process, therefore living in the environment, they forget about themselves and this generates an identity problem because they question who they are and as the process progresses they begin to think that their sport is what defines them, they forget that they they are important for being people, not for being tennis players. They get wrapped up in a character and forget about his person, ”analyzes Jonathan Flores, Master in Sports Psychology and Doctor in Bioethics with more than 13 years of experience in high-performance sports.
According to both specialists, the pressure in tennis begins from childhood, when parents begin to generate expectations and want their children to always win; As they progress, in some cases there is the responsibility of being the new face of tennis for an entire country. Already when reaching a professional level, the press, the sponsors and the ranking imposed by both the ATP as the WTAwhich force players to stay under constant pressure to win in order to move up and receive more income.
—At what age is it advisable to start working on psychology in tennis?
—“In the early stages we work on the structure from the age of 10, the ideal age for fundamentals, where the boy must be taught that sometimes he will win and sometimes not. We live in a generation of parents who want to give their children everything they didn’t have and therefore deprive them of having to work to obtain things. They enter into a topic of wanting is power but they forget that you can want but if you are not prepared you will not get anything and tennis is a sport that shows a lot if you are in optimal conditions or not. At a very early age we work so that they begin to have responsibilities at home, taking care of their own diet, hours of sleep and thus form a structure of order and discipline”, answers the Doctor Jonathan Flores.
Coach Fernando Ochoa, who was in charge of the Mexican figure Santiago González, indicates that there are four stages in the training of tennis players: initiation, technical development, improvement and the accompaniment of a sports psychologist. “It is impossible for a tennis player right now with the characteristics that sport in general has to be able to cope with everything that being a tennis star in the world implies alone. It can not. Psychological preparation is the fourth leg of a table. The sports psychologist has to be part of the multidisciplinary group of a tennis star or future star”.
However, both insist that the environment is essential for the emotional stability of tennis players, because in a present in which there is more and more interaction on social networks and criticism from the media, the bases of values of the families and technical bodies become their strength.
“The key to any sport is the environment. In tennis, the best example is Rafael Nadal, who has had the same work group since he was 13 years old, this is key, having the right people around your life, who will take care of the process, starting with the parents having a good education and not wanting to project themselves wanting that the son fulfills what they did not do. This leads us to the reflection that Nadal has always commented on: take things naturally, neither big celebrations in victories nor big disappointments in defeats, keep a balance and keep working”, highlights the sports psychologist.
With reference to the cases of Naomi Osaka, who after taking a break last year to improve her mental health continues to go through some crises, or Ashleigh Barty, who flatly preferred to retire at the age of 25, psychology proposes that tennis players evaluate if they really want to continue on that path or open up to new horizons.
“Definitely, just as they invest in physical training, their investment in mental preparation has to be of the same size, with relaxation techniques, visualization, meditation, having their own space, that they are masters of their time and have the freedom to say now I want to do something else, have that self-esteem and not let the system take you where they want. If when they get up they start having a hard time waking up, going to train and giving their best day after day, I think that’s not the case anymore”, concludes Dr. Flores.
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