Challenges

The challenges that professional tennis players face are few and far between... No, no, wait... We are getting mixed up with the other blog we need to write for the national knitting magazine :-)

Yes, as we are sure many of you realise, tennis players, as a whole, encounter many more challengers than the knitter of this world, although we know a few grandma's may disagree!

When we are at home with friends, or meeting people on our travels, they often ask ' So, where are you going to next on your travels?' 'Sweden' (for example) we answer. 'Wow, you are so lucky, it's beautiful there, you have to go to the mountains, see the lakes and the museums!' It's true, Sweden is very beautiful, and it most likely does have stunning mountains and lakes, but unfortunately, one of the sacrifices you make as a tennis player is that you very rarely get the time to witness these incredible sites. All we get to see is the luxury (or lack of) of the hotels, airports and tennis courts.

One of the toughest things can often be the travelling involved to get from one tournament to the next. Right now for example we are on the 2nd of four trains, to Ystad,  totalling 8.5hrs!

(Stefy)
It was only five days ago when I travelled for two days to get from Montepellier (where I made the final in doubles) to Kristinehamn. All that time spent travelling to arrive and lose two of the three matches that I had to win, against lesser players, by making the same mental mistakes that I thought I had got past already.
It's tough for me at the moment because I keep improving a lot in practice but haven't been able to put everything I have learned onto the match court yet. I am brave and hit every ball in practice but then when I get into a match I wanna win and not make an error so I focus on that instead of just playing and going for my shots. It is not easy and a lot of players struggle with it but I know it's just a question of time if I keep working on it, because I know what I have to do.

Now Fitzy is gonna give you a bit more of an insight into some of the other problems and challenges that professional tennis players sometimes face.

(Fitzy)
As some of you may know, I have been out of tournaments again for the past six or seven weeks. It seemed as though my foot had fully healed after seven month out, so I started to train then played a few tournaments. My goal was to get my singles and doubles ranking back up to where they were before my injury last year, so I could use that as a base and build on it. Unfortunately it became apparent that my foot hadn't completely healed, or if it had, the fracture was showing signs of returning. It seems that the problem was mechanical, something to do with with how my foot was functioning. I saw a few specialists and they concluded between them that two things were necessary - custom made orthotics along with two to three weeks of using an exogen machine on the area of my foot where the signs of bone oedema had appeared on my scans.
Now however, I have started training again, my foot feels pretty good and I am currently getting back into matches. So far I have played two doubles matches and it really is fantastic to be out there in the competitive atmosphere again.

It has been an incredibly frustrating ten months but I have used it to work on the mental side of my game, which can be improved massively without even stepping foot on a tennis court. Now, more then ever I have to be very strong mentally. After so long away from the tournament scene, I am going to have to work even harder to re-establish myself and battle through each level. I know what I have to do, but I also understand that it may take longer than I would like. I haven't played a singles match yet, but I know how much I am determined to use everything I have leanrt when I get into tough situations on court. I'm also really looking forward to the new psychological challenges I am going to face, having never been in this position before.

These are just the psychological challenges that we face there are also many practical problems to overcome, such as no available practice courts or having to use balls for practice that you wouldnt even give to your dog! The list goes on and on but we know that it is the same for all of the players at this level. The ones who accept it and deal with it the best are the ones who will breakthrough and compete with the best in the world.

Through tennis we have both learned that 'the only people without any problems are those in the cemeteries!'

We hope you enjoyed the quicke inside into the challenges we face as tennis players.
Until next time!

Stefy and Anna