Mindset of an Underdog
What do you focus on when you are not favored to win a match or are playing a higher-ranked opponent?
When you play top tennis players, are you overcome by the fear of losing? Do you expect to lose the match? Do you play it safe and try to avoid making mistakes?
Playing not to lose, playing it safe, or not trying to make mistakes are ineffective plans of attack. In fact, those are defective strategies that lead to underperformance.
These strategies are flawed because they have the opposite of the intended objective.
Playing not to lose causes you to play reactively and lets your opponent dictate the pace of the match.
Playing it safe causes you to play overly cautious. Pulling off an upset is impossible if you donít aggressively try to hit winners.
Trying not to make mistakes causes you to play tight and actually increases the number of unforced errors.
Pulling off an upset requires that you see the match as winnable.
The Four Keys to Pulling Off an Upset
- Fight throughout the match – Stay in the game mentally. Put behind you past matches against your opponent or mistakes you committed earlier in the match.
- Battle for each point – A tennis match is a war comprised of many mini-battles. Scoring points is a matter of staying focused on each battle.
- Make the big, small – No matter how impressive, remind yourself that you are not playing against an opponents rank, accolades, or record. Your opponent is just another player who makes mistakes, gets nervous, and has bad days.
- Play to win – Playing it safe rarely wins matches. Hoping your opponent loses is not a sound match strategy. Playing your best tennis only happens when you play to win. Keep your focus on what you are trying to accomplish for each point and your plan to execute that strategy.
At the 2025 Australian Open, 19th-seeded Madison Keys upset No. 2 Iga Swiatek, 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (8) to advance to the Grand Slam final. Swiatek, a five-time Grand Slam champion, had not lost a service game since the tournament’s first round.
Rather than being overwhelmed by the moment, Keys stayed mentally immersed in the match and kept battling for each point.
KEYS: “I felt like I was just fighting to stay in it. … It was so up and down and so many big points… At the end, I feel like we were both kind of battling some nerves. … It just became who can get that final point and who can be a little bit better than the other one.”
Even though Keys was playing a highly accomplished player, she was committed to going for each shot, being aggressive during each set, and playing to win.
KEYS: “I’ve been doing a lot of personal work with all of that. One of the big things, after I lost to Aryna [Sabalenka] at the [2023] US Open, I felt like I tried to play safe, and I wasn’t playing how I wanted to in the big moments. That felt so bad. I felt like if I can go out and do what I want to do and really just be uncomfortable at times and go for it and play the way I play my best tennis, and I lose, then I can walk away and say, ‘OK, I did my best, she beat me, that’s fine.'”
To pull off an upset, you must first see the match as winnable. This fosters a “go-for-it” mindset, allowing you to stay aggressive, and take your chances when opportunities arise.
Don’t let the opponent’s reputation overwhelm you. Remember, you are not playing their reputation. You are competing against an opponent who has lost in the past. Stay in the moment and focus on one point at a time to avoid thinking too far ahead.
Related Tennis Psychology Articles
- Never Show Opponent You’re Upset During Matches
- How Swiatek Rebounded After an Upset
- Regain Composure When Upset
- Download our a FREE Tennis Psychology Report
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