According to a sports psychologist, Wimbledon players experience “mental torture”

Tennis club hackers are all too familiar with the crippling jitters that might prevent them from winning, but they are in good company since even the best players at Wimbledon experience “mental torture,” according to a renowned sports psychologist.

Over the next two weeks, the All England Club’s lawns will be the center of tennis attention as the top players in the world face off against rivals and often their own inner demons.

Tennis chokes, or games when a player seemed to have everything under control only to lose control due to stress as the finish line approached, are well-documented in history.

When she was set to defeat Steffi Graf in the 1993 Wimbledon final and lose the match due to nervousness, the late Jana Novotna is remembered for crying.

Even the legendary Serena Williams fell to Czech Karolina Pliskova in the Australian Open quarterfinal after leading 5-1 in the third set.

Who could forget the nerve-wracking five sets of the 2004 French Open final between Argentina’s Gaston Gaudio and Guillermo Coria, when both players spurned winning situations until Gaudio ultimately prevailed.

No one should be shocked, according to Katie Mobed, who has assisted numerous British athletes with their mental approach, since there will undoubtedly be other instances from this year’s Wimbledon.

She claims that tennis is the sport with the most emotional demands.

UNUSUAL DIFFICULTIES

The special difficulties that professional tennis players must overcome are many. With nowhere for players to hide and no teammate or manager to assist diffuse the strain, the game has a gladiatorial feel to it, according to Mobed.

The unusual scoring system basically transforms every game into a penalty shootout because it “requires unpredictable endurance and power over an unspecified time frame.”

Speaking as part of Vodafone’s Connection Fuels Champions campaign, Mobed claims that the length of time between points and games may even make champions like Novak Djokovic and Elena Rybakina lose confidence.

“They are experiencing what can be considered mental torment. Every hour that tennis players are on the court, they probably only spend around 10 minutes really playing tennis.

The remaining time is spent alone with their thoughts between matches, between sets, or while changing ends.

Andy Murray, a former world number one from the United Kingdom, is all too aware of the mental baggage tennis players may carry after losing four Grand Slam finals before winning the 2012 U.S. Open.

A year later, on a stuffy Centre Court, he won his first Wimbledon championship, ending a 77-year drought for a British male winner.

The 36-year-old has handled the pressure he has received at Wimbledon throughout the years wonderfully, according to Mobed.

He is a wonderful illustration of someone who has worked really hard to develop their mental power, she added.