Tomas Etcheverry: “Mental health is important in tennis”

Tennis is unquestionably one of the sports that requires more mental strength, perhaps even more than physical strength. A continuous battle of nerves that often rewards components such as head, lucidity and coldness even before talent.

Tomas Etcheverry, Argentine tennis player, talked about this topic in an interesting chat with the ATP, who is doing well in this first part of the season. The current number 73 in the ranking has shown that he has his head on his shoulders and his main objective is to keep his sanity on the court.

Here is his experience on this topic: “I have never broken or hit a racket in my life. My teachers instilled it in me. And I feel that the racket is not to blame,” he confessed, alluding to that characteristic of players who fail to control their emotions by throwing or mistreating the racket when things don’t go the way they would like.

Etcheverry explains the secrets to not get overwhelmed by emotions

Etcheverry says the key to preventing this from happening: “The idea is to control yourself, to know what things have gone wrong. I no longer cry and I can’t remember the last time I cried over a loss. Now I get angry if I doubt myself in an important moment or if I think I could have done differently. Then I start to punish myself, but I let go quickly.”

Then he continued: “There are negative thoughts that arrive, it is inevitable. The key is the importance one gives them. We must try not to blame ourselves too much, we do the best we can and this is enough. This is my way. There are other players who download rage. It’s about finding what’s best for you.”

Finally, he concludes by saying that in his opinion, getting help from a figure like a psychologist is fundamental for him: “Mental health is very important in a sport where there are many pressures. It is good to be able to work on the mind because it is a very important weapon. Personally it also helps me because I keep things. So I unload, I free myself, it’s the thing I appreciate the most.”