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Mental Skills Used By World Class Tennis Players
By Simon Grieve LTA Performance
Coach and Procompare Co-Founder
Setting
the scene: After back-to-back 1st RD indoor
losses in San Jose and Memphis, James Blake rebounded with his
fifth career ATP title in Las Vegas in March 2006, defeating
No. 10 Hewitt in a three-set final. From here Blake competed
in Indian Wells with the possibility of breaking into the top
10 for the first time.
These tennis video clips are taken from his press conference
immediately after his first round match against American Wild
Card Sam Querry. I was fortunate to sit courtside at this match
and was amazed at the level of tennis Querry produced in the
first set; equally I really enjoyed seeing Blake handle the pressure
of losing the first set 6-1 in which he was thoroughly outplayed.
Blake eventually came back to win the match 1-6 6-1 6-1 and
went on the reach the final, losing to Federer. He broke into
the top ten and ended the year at a career high of No.4
Tennis Video Clip #1
In this tennis video clip James Blake shares experience and
advice for juniors who lose the first set, panic and then struggle
to keep their mind in the present.
Q. What happened in the first set, did you start slow?
Blake accepted that Querry had started at an incredible level.
He compliments his performance and realised that if Querry kept
his performance at such a high level it would be tough to beat
him.
Blake understood that even though the rankings of the two players
were not close, Querry was a quality player, capable of playing
great tennis. He has a great ability of keeping his thoughts
positive and rarely do you hear Blake make negative remarks about
his own game.
Blake believes he did a good job during the change over after
the first set. He did not get down on himself and did not panic.
Experience tells him that just because he lost a set to a wildcard,
it doesn’t mean it is the end of the world (wild cards
can play well as well).
Blake guesses that Querry started
thinking about what he was doing and how well he was playing,
perhaps this future thinking took him away from concentrating
on the process and staying in the present. Nevertheless, Blake
shows true class and compliments Querry’s talent commenting
that it is great for American tennis that there is a very talented
up and coming junior on the scene.
Click
here to watch James Blake
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