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I watched Wimbledon live and on television over the last 2 weeks and was hoping that a Britain might finally reach the final and even possibly win it. Unfortunately, an American spoilt the party. Andy Roddick played the best tennis I have ever seen him play and beat the great British hope Andy Murray in the semi final. Clearly Roddick hadn’t read the script and spoilt our planned party on Sunday when Murray was meant to pit his skills against, arguably the best tennis player of all time, Roger Federer.

In fact, Roddick repeated his near flawless tennis against Federer in the final but this time he was beaten in a classic match that could easily have gone either way. Both semi final and final were decided by a few important points. So what decides these high pressure matches?  Is it technique, luck, competitiveness, will to win or fitness perhaps? They are all professional athletes with excellent technique, strong will to win and physically very fit.

In my opinion, what makes Roger Federer great is his ability to remain calm and in control of his emotions when under extreme pressure. This is known as mental toughness; a natural or developed psychological edge that enables an athlete to cope with the many demands that sport places on a perfomer. Specifically, be more consistant and better than your opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident, and in control under pressure. Conversely, this is what may prevent Andy Murray from achieving the same status in the game; he has all the other attributes that the best players of all time have but what he appears to find difficult is controlling his emotions and remaining focused for long periods of time.

After Federer’s record breaking, grand slam win he was seen talking to three other tennis greats from the past; Rod Laver who dominated the game in the 60′s, Bjorn Borg who dominated the 70′s and Pete Sampras who dominated the 90′s. All four were extremely calm on court and able to concentrate for long periods of time and coped well under pressure.

Despite having great talent and ability, John McEnroe never achieved the success of his main rival Bjorn Borg in the 70′s and 80′s. In my opinion, he was the most talented of the two but was very emotional on court, often taking out his frustrations on the umpires and line judges. Unfortunately emotions drain our energy and distract attention away from the job in hand.

Roger Federer was known to throw the odd tantrum on court when he was a teenager and showed his emotions on court so he has made massive improvements in this area of performance, so lets hope Andy Murray can do the same. He is maturing and has already made improvements in this area. Maybe next year he will add this dimension to his game and reach the Wimbledon final. Andy appears to have a good team behind him, but are they paying enough attention to the psychological and emotional aspect of performance. If Andy is interested we will be pleased to help apply some of the strategies and techniques that we use at The Spence Practice to become more emotionally resilient and more mentally tough!