I’m writing the 28th article of the “Court Chronicles” blog – which shares the same birthday with me, March 8th – on its one-year anniversary.

Last Month, at the A7TV Studios

In this anniversary article I will follow the request of a constant reader who suggested a little while ago to write about my thoughts during a match, about the expectations that I have of myself as a player and as a person, or how I find my tranquility in those moments.

I will try to put into words something of that in the following lines, although it’s quite difficult to describe all aspects of this problem, because in each match you feel something more or less different, depending on the context.

But first, let me give to the Caesars – that is, to the Big 3 – what belongs to them. They approached this matter, at various times:

Roger calls it the ‘fire and ice situation:

The fire is wanting to win, being excited after a good point, and the ice, coolness of accepting losses, accepting bad shots, accepting the crowd, the tough circumstances, and I think I found the right balance after three years on tour.

However, he also admits that:

I still get nervous, of course, sometimes I still don’t play very well, but I can trust myself and it’s been really interesting to see my evolution, I think.

Rafa, the earnest and perfectionist, describes his profession of faith briefly:

It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, you have to strive to improve.
You must never stop learning and growing. There are always new challenges to face and new opportunities to explore.

And Nole has, as usual, an original method when he describes an exercise that has helped him a lot throughout his career:

I do it everyday for about 15 minutes and it is as important to me as my physical training… Instead of trying to silence your mind or find ‘inner peace’, you allow and accept your thoughts as they come… they do bounce around like crazy, but they’re supposed to, your job is to let them come and go.
I’ve done so much mindfulness that my brain functions better now automatically… I used to freeze up whenever I made a mistake. Now when I blow a serve or shank a backhand I still get those flashes of self doubt but I know how to handle them.

Returning to my feelings and experiences, I think that the emotions during a match depend, among others, on the moment of your career, the time of the season you play, the preparation before the tournament.

All this gives you a certain degree of confidence when you enter the court. And immediately this is also influenced by the answer you receive from the other side of the net.

I will give as practical examples some of the last matches that I played, but I will also draw a parallel with the period when I was performing at the highest level I have reached so far.

As you know, last season I didn’t play many matches because of the injuries. Thus, in the ones I played, my physical level was not good, many times I even played with pain. So, I couldn’t enjoy the tennis or play with a clear mind, without thinking all the time if I will last a whole match.

After the last injury, the goal was to gradually re-enter the circuit, check how many matches in a row I can last, how many tournaments, if I can play both singles and doubles in the same week.

During the first matches after my return on the tour, I was very happy to be on the court and the goal was just to go as far as possible in the tournament without aiming a specific result. I was gradually gaining confidence in my body, playing long matches and observing that I was holding on.

After the two ITF W15 tournaments, I regained confidence in my game as well, I was just focusing there and hitting the shots as I practiced them during the weeks leading up to the tournament. Emotionally, I felt good, I didn’t think too much about the score, so the game went by itself, without getting stuck at certain moments. Only after one match I couldn’t explain what happened, either emotionally, physically or tactically, but I took it as a lesson and continued.

This period continued with the title won in Vienna, where I coped from all points of view. However, I felt that I still had a lot of work to do before I could reach my highest level of play.

But in Argentina, right from the first practice session, I started thinking too much about every move that I made. I was giving myself advice and was increasingly critical of how I played. I wasn’t happy with how I felt on the court and I was trying in vain to get out of this situation. However, in the first matches I regained my balance and became optimistic again. I entered with the idea of ​​encouraging and motivating myself at every point.

After the match against the Brazilian, I was proud of my attitude in the second and third sets. I kept my composure and played consistently regardless of the score. I told myself it’s a fight and I’m ready for it. Positive thoughts that helped me get to match points, where with a little luck, I could have won. And then maybe my state of mind would have been diametrically opposed at the following tournaments.

Comparing this match – from the emotional or mental point of view – to some of my career bests, my thoughts were similar. When I met a well-ranked opponent, I knew the level was close and prepared myself mentally and physically for a tough fight. I didn’t expect to win the match easily, but if I did, I was happy and satisfied with my progress.

Instead, in the past few months, I have too often expected to win easily, and if I didn’t, I would become disgruntled. This state led to a decrease in my level of concentration and automatically confidence. And at the last tournaments, I struggled with the thoughts and expectations that were caused by the poor level of my game and, implicitly, by the results.

Now I’m practicing to catch up on physical fitness, which I’ve been lagging behind due to injuries. I am sure that once this aspect is fixed, my mood will become positive and, consequently, the results will be better, as I explained in one of the previous articles.

In the next month and a half, I will play four tournaments and we will see together to what extent my plan will succeed.