Fear of losing to lower ranked player

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Fear of losing to lower ranked player

by Tunde
(Port-Harcourt, Nigeria)

I normally play well and win against such players in practice matches. I have overheard one guy commenting that I'm too good for him and he does not think he could win me.

But to face the same guy in tournament match, I would be so tensed and scared, start playing below my normal level. My services will wobble and my strokes will land short on his court for easy attack.

I will run more and chase balls more and get tired early in the match. I have only managed to win 30% of the time whenever I face the situation above. Even with those wins, I'm not really very happy because I didn't play well enough to deserve to win.

I have been speaking by mails to Dr. Cohn, sport Psychologist! I have not really played any tournament lately to see if I can deal the fears and other things that inhibits my performance in tournament play.

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Fear of losing to lower ranked player

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Can you handle the loss?
by: Tomaz

Great question, Tunde, thanks for asking this question!

First, think about this:

Roger Federer became #1 player in the world on 2nd of Feb 2004.

In 2004 he lost to: Henman, Nadal, Costa, Kuerten, Hrbaty, Berdych.

In 2005 he lost to: Nalbandian, Nadal, Gasquet (ranked 101 at that time!), Safin

In 2006 he lost to: Murray, Nadal

In 2007 he lost to: Nalbandian, Djokovic, Nadal, Volandri (ranked 53), Canas (ranked 55)

In 2008 he lost to: Simon, Murray, Blake, Karlovic (ranked 22), Nadal, Stepanek (ranked 27), Roddick, Fish (ranked 98!), Djokovic

Since Federer was #1 all that time, all these players were lower ranked than him.

My point is, that you WILL lose to lower ranked players and this cannot be prevented.

The anxiety that you feel is because you don't want this to happen but you know it CAN and it WILL happen sometimes.

In other words, you are not realistic in your desires of not wanting to lose to a lower ranked player and this discrepancy between reality and your desires causes you to feel anxious.

And instead of looking for a magic pill or secret tennis tip that will save you from losing to lower ranked players, you need to DEAL with losing to lower ranked players.

You will lose to lower ranked players. This is a fact.

Now... Can you handle this? Are you going to be ok after such a loss? Will you survive and stay healthy without any injuries or traumas to your mental state?

Sure you will.

You need to put a tennis loss into a realistic perspective. People die in car accidents, children starve to death in Africa and here you are trembling before a match because you may lose to a lower ranked player. ;)

Come on, I'm sure you can handle that. You'll learn from that, you'll know what went wrong and improve your technique and strategy for the next match.

Through these losses you will improve and grow as a tennis player and as a person.

And one more thing: do NOT associate tennis rankings with your own self-esteem.

Tennis is just a sport and having good tennis rankings just means that someone has developed good tennis skills through lots of practice.

It doesn't say anything about the character, the honesty, the generosity and other positive traits of a good person.

You need to respect yourself based on your character and not based on how you perform in one game that people invented so that they were not bored too much. ;)

Fear of losing to Lower Ranked Player
by: Segun

Tunde is a guy that loves tennis and really wants to improve. The Mental Part of Tennis might be his problem. He spends so much time and money with the coaching pro in our local club. Whenever he plays test mactches with the coach ,it's difficult to notice who the coach is. His skill, technique and knowledge about the game has improved so much. We call him "Text Book Player" at our local club. He loves to play the way the Pro Plays. When you ring a tournament bell!!! He withdraws into his shell. Players with less skill not neccesarily lower ranked will beat him. He's such a great guy and loves the game, maybe he should just avoid tournament and play only for leisure. Then you will see his best.

Tomaz - Fear of Losing Comment
by: TennisTom

Tomaz,
Very good words to print in your writeup of Fear of Losing to Lower Ranked Player. Worthy of reading by everyone from beginners to pros. I've been writing tennis instructionals for decades and I know when something is well written and pertinent. Excellent. TennisTom '09

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Fear of losing to lower ranked player

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Fear of losing to lower ranked player