The Mindset of Top Tennis Players – Coco Gauff

What are the Elements of an Elite Competitive Mindset?

You may characterize an elite competitive mindset as having high expectations or demanding perfection. Many see these traits as essential for peak performance and success.

However, those traits only lead to overwhelming pressure and high anxiety.

Imagine this situation.

You are playing in the finals of a tournament. You believe your only chance of winning is to be perfect. Before each serve, you tell yourself losing the point is not an option and making mistakes is unforgivable.

Would you feel poised and confident or stressed and overwhelmed? Would an unforced error motivate you to compete for the next point or lead to frustration?

Excessively high expectations and demand for perfection are unhealthy and unproductive.

An elite competitive mindset empowers athletes to perform at their best, remain mentally tough under pressure, maintain focus, and motivate players to compete for each point regardless of the outcomes of previous points.

5 Characteristics of an Elite Competitive Mindset

  1. Mental Toughness – Being resilient on the court requires that you are able to deal with momentum shifts and bounce back quickly from lost games or unforced errors.
  2. Laser Focus – Laser focus is maintaining concentration during high-stakes points and immersing yourself in the moment. It is having a “next point mentality” and resetting focus regardless of the previous point’s outcome.
  3. Productive Self-Talk – Empowering self-talk requires you to pay no attention to self-critical thoughts and only focus on thoughts that are constructive and foster peak performance, such as tactical thoughts or match strategy.
  4. Poised and Composed – Composure is dealing with and regulating your emotions, not bottling up emotions. Managing emotions such as anxiety, frustration, or overexcitement helps you conserve mental and physical energy to maximize your efforts during the match.
  5. Adaptability – Adaptability is adjusting your match strategy when needed. The key is to find alternative solutions when a part of your game is not working rather than packing it and giving up.

Heading into the 2025 Australian Open, Coco Gauff was unbeaten and posted an 18-2 record since the 2024 US Open, earning five wins against Top 10 opponents.

Those kind of results may cause some players to feel an expectation to replicate such results. That mindset only builds pressure to overwhelming proportions and detracts from a player’s focus and ability to perform at their peak.

However, Gauff adopts, as she describes, a ‘relaxed and chill’ mindset to matches, even against the most formidable opponents.

GAUFF: 

Developing an elite competitive mindset requires continual practice, patience, and refinement. Peak performance is not just about physical talent but also the ability to mentally navigate the unique challenges in each match.

You have probably heard the phrase “practice what you preach.” Creating an elite peak performance mindset requires you to “practice what you seek.”In other words, competing with an elite competitive mindset starts by competing in practice with that same mindset.

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Improve Your Mental Game for Tennis

Tennis Confidence 2.0

Tennis Confidence 2.0

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