Balance or Burnout

Last week I received a phone call from my good friend and former Alabama teammate, to hear that he was in Paris for a couple of days. He coaxed me to meet him and his friend for a drink at a classy restaurant, Matignon, on the Champs-Ellisse that was by invitation only. When I arrived, my Finnish friend met me at the door and brought me to their table where I was able to meet his friend: Emil Ruusuvuori, former ATP #37 and currently ranked #222 in the world. I wasn’t surprised because I had known the two were friends and playing doubles at a tournament nearby in Paris, but he was the highest ranked guy I’ve gotten to know.

My teammate and I got to catch up since we hadn’t seen each other in years, meanwhile I was able to pepper in some questions to Emil to learn more about who he is and his journey. To the best of my recollection, we began talking about the tournament they had just come from, an ITF Futures $25k in Saint-Dizier, only a few hours from Paris. They chose this tournament to practice some doubles for their upcoming Davis Cup matches for Finland. Emil mentioned he played singles too, since he had hardly played in any tournaments for six months but failed to even finish the first set of his first match. I asked if he was injured or if he had surgery of some kind to which he responded and mentioned he was suffering from burnout.

At such a young age, Emil had experienced success. As he told me, there was maybe one year where he was on the ITF Futures tour like in Kazakhstan, Mexico, or Turkey. However, he rose up the rankings after winning his home ATP tournament as a teenager and never looked back. Since then, he has played in all four majors as well as countless ATP events against the best players in the world. As he put it, playing the same events for the last three years was getting boring and mundane and he was starting to not enjoy tennis for several reasons. The grind of tennis is the reality that you are going to lose nearly every week in a different city, whether you like it or not. This can take a toll on players who have early success in their careers and who are not used to losing. Towards the end of last year, he split with his longtime coach, hindering his motivation to train and compete at the highest level. Losing this personal relationship was hard on him mentally and he has struggled to regain his drive.

Throughout his playing career, Emil has been locked in as a professional with very few days off away from the grind. When he gets time off, he typically goes back home to Finland to be with family and friends. However, when he’s in public, he attracts attention as the #1 player in the country, making it very hard for him to let loose with friends on a day off. Emil made it clear to me that the international spotlight has prevented him from enjoying himself in Finland, so the two days off he was able to spend in Paris were a relief. His story prompted me to ask, “do you think you need to schedule yourself some vacation days during your season to allow yourself to reset mentally?” He responded by mentioning that earlier in his career, he enjoyed the week-to-week travel and training and felt like letting loose would hinder his tennis ability. Now, he said that it may be something he needs to consider as he begins his comeback on tour to balance the stress of tennis. I asked if he knew other guys on tour who enjoyed themselves between tournaments and such, to which he responded with a few guys, all of whom had been at least top 30 ATP).

It is my understanding that the grind of professional tennis, whether on the ITF Futures Tour or the ATP Tour, requires players to find time to take a step back throughout the season to allow themselves to reset mentally. Players like Emil, who typically take vacation days to go home and see family, face another set of challenges with fame in their home countries making it hard to enjoy themselves on a night out. In my opinion, it’s paramount to schedule days off and to allow yourself to have fun without feeling remorse. All too often, we see professional tennis players from both the ATP and WTA Tours suffering from mental health issues, forcing them to press pause on their tournament schedule until they find their motivation to compete. To combat this, I believe the quota philosophy of Dane Sweeney and Calum Puttergill is key. The two Aussies have a YouTube channel titled Life on the Tour, where they allow themselves an annual quota for partying. Their philosophy is that by allowing themselves to go out a certain number of times per year, they make more rational decisions in terms of drinking and staying up late without entirely eliminating their ability to do so. In essence, this mindset asks the question, “is worth it?”, every time the opportunity to party presents itself. For tennis professionals, this intentionality can reduce the damage nights of partying can entail, while still allowing for mental resets when deemed necessary. The principle of this philosophy is balance. With the proper scheduling and intentionality, players like Emil can learn to balance professionalism with recreation to ultimately sustain their careers and reduce burnout.