We debated last year in an article about physical and mental strenght, which of the two components is more important in tennis or in sports in general. I will continue to address this topic by referring to the experiences I have gone through over the past year. They were the most important life lessons for me so far and I had a lot to learn from.
It’s been six months since I returned to the court after the two injuries suffered last year. It was six months in which I worked extremely hard to recover physically. This process was a gradual one, which I started from learning to walk normally again.
I remember that during the first two weeks, I would get to the physio office by bus – I wasn’t allowed to drive – and I would walk to the bus station in ten minutes, a distance that normally takes two minutes.
One day a taxi driver yelled at me for walking too slowly on the pedestrian crossing. Now I am amused by that incident, but then it was rather unpleasant, because maybe you know what words are used here in traffic.
But I got past these moments and now I can do anything in the gym. Also, I am moving better and better on the court, I am relearning to slide and feel the clay, I can run at any speed. And most importantly, I last three hours in a match, and the next day I return to the court and play another one without pain.
Would this comeback have been possible without a strong mind and ambition?
Probably not.
Did anyone else think I would come back and compete head-to-head with worthy opponents?
Yes, for sure: those who were by my side when I was discouraged and did not have much hope left.
The recovery becomes even more difficult, almost impossible without a technical team that knows you perfectly as an athlete, but also as a person. The role of the coach is very important: he must be present day by day, from the beginning of the process, until the complete recovery, to follow the progress and know how to restore your confidence in your body and then in your mind. He needs to know how to bring out your potential and get you comfortable with your game again, maybe more so than before the injury.
Thus, confidence on the court is built in training, so that it can then appear in matches. And the more often you apply what you have worked on in practice and what is right for you during matches, the more the game will become an automatism – imprinted in your mind and body – that you will use more and more often.
The objective is to play good for an entire match and after several matches and weeks in a row, to aspire for the consistency that has validated the best players in the world. This is the ideal, of course.
As Goethe said: “Everything is difficult before it becomes easy.”
Playing at UTR Belgrade and with the CTC Club Tennis Clermontois team, before a match in the French Championship. Video, at the end of the article
Like in the process of physical recovery, that of mental recovery is rebuilt in small steps.
In my case, I knew I had a lot of work to do on both aspects, so I’ve been doing it day in and day out for the past six months.
I also asked for support from close people and accepted to be helped.
I state this because in the past I wanted to do everything by myself out of the desire to be independent. If someone offered to help me, I would not accept or listen, because I thought it would hurt my confidence and self-esteem.
So, the people around you play an important role in guiding you in the right direction.
Grigor Dimitrov said after qualifying for the Miami Open final and returning to the ATP top 10 just before turning 33, that he continued to believe in him, and when he did not believe enough, the whole team continued to nudge him in the right direction. He also appreciated that his discipline was a good one, and his family and close friends were by his side all the time.
Physically or mentally, these aspects develop together. And as a professional athlete and not only, if you want to achieve your goals, you must work every day to reach the best version of you, but still enjoy the beautiful things that life has to offer.
After all, it is about the love of life, the results in tournaments and the ranking position being the rewards for the work you have done.
Speaking of the ranking, those of you who are tennis aficionados know that the process of my return has not yet materialized through good results and my place in the ranking is suffering.
Maybe I was too happy that I was able to play, that I was fighting on an equal footing with my opponents and I missed that last impulse that brings the victory, for example here, but also in other close defeats this year.
In the same context, the player against whom I missed two match balls and eventually lost, in the WTA 125 Bucharest (September) 2022 qualifications, Maria Carle – then the Argentine was 418 WTA – reached the 71st place, following several good results that culminated, two weeks ago with a 3rd round at WTA 100 Madrid, after qualifications and victories for Emma Răducanu and Veronika Kudermetova.
This is how history is written.
I didn’t either play enough ITF tournaments, but UTRs, national tournaments abroad and team matches, in order to improve my finances and to be able to continue from this point of view in the official circuit.
Despite this, I have not the slightest thought of retirement. As long as I am enjoying the game, the tournaments and all that they entail, I will continue, because:
- I have a professional record of which I am proud – if we also consider the institutional financial support I have benefited from, or rather the almost total lack of it – and it would be a shame to give up after all the sacrifices I and my family have made
- I do not want to disappoint those who have helped me and continue to do it: my technical team, doctors, physiotherapists and close friends
- I also want to give an example of resilience to the young players with whom I come into contact more and more often, so that my advice has the coverage of the personal example.
Here I want to share with you the enormous joy I had on Monday, when I won the first round match of the doubles event in ITF W15 Bucharest, together with my little friend, Ilinca Sagmar (15 years old), who thus marked her first success on a main draw in the official senior circuit.
For me it was a greater joy than winning a title.
I enjoyed her happiness and felt very young again.
The innocence of childhood should never leave us, regardless of the difficulties and bitterness that life offers us from time to time.
So, I will keep fighting and try to materialize the good game in victories. Any good results I get from now on will be a bonus.
That being said, I don’t get bitter about defeats anymore; no, there is no contradiction with what I wrote in the previous sentence, but only a proof of serenity, a state that I have acquired lately.
And since not everything depends on us in this world, I remain optimistic, because at the end of each day I know that I did everything I could and something more.
