Toughness & Resilience are Nonnegotiables

Some of the greatest lessons to be learned at this level of tennis are self-realizations that can only come with experience. No one outshines the rest in their level of skill, strength, or fitness, rather the separator appears to be the mind. Confidence builds for those who make it out of qualifying, often giving them the upper hand in their first-round main draw matches. Others who come back from a set down early in the tournament prove to themselves they have to resilience to make it through when they seem to be down and out. In my first week, the singles final was between a qualifier and a lucky loser who had played each other in the final qualifying round five days prior. Each player was faced with adversity and persevered to a successful week beginning in qualifying.

Nearly every week there is a player that manifests belief in themselves, often stemming from qualifying, who goes on a tear through the main draw. The second week of my stay in Tunisia, a Frenchman made it through a gutsy first set in a tiebreak over the third seed in qualifying and continued to win throughout the week making it all the way to the final. In watching his semifinal match against Kenny De Schepper (former ATP top-100 player) where he won 7-5 in the 3^rd set, it was clear that his confidence was high on both his forehand and serve. In comparison to the qualifying round, he was playing loose and more aggressively proving his worth in the late stages of the tournament.

Upon reflecting on these success stories, I realize the opportunity I have in front of me. Just like the unexpected finalists and champions in the last two weeks, I have put in the work to achieve success. I am gaining awareness of the resilience it takes to work each week with the same mentality and to have trust in the process. The first step in my awakening as a tennis professional is to consciously work towards improvement every day. The next is to refine my style of winning—the never-ending sculpture of my game. Based on how my skillset allows me to win points, I must replicate it over-and-over-and-over… again. As the foundation for professional success, this can be defined as mental fitness: consistently executing your game with unwavering focus on the subsequent shot, point, game, or match. Physical consistency follows, as the ability to perform week after week, through injury prevention and physical fitness. Lastly, professional tennis requires the ability to adjust your game style based on the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent. Years of practice and refinement define your toolbelt or skillset to use during competition. I would argue this step is the primary role of the traveling professional tennis coach in player development. Traveling coaches provide match insight into ways to best apply your skillset to the opponent, conditions, or surface. While young professionals like me cannot afford a traveling coach, this responsibility lies solely on us, the player. I’ve found that my friends here in Monastir can provide some insight into my match strategy, but they are obviously not watching every point of my matches and thus have limited info to share.