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Reception: 01/26/2024 - Acceptance: 01/27/2024

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Suggested reference: Grant, B. (2024). Inside the Minds of Rookie Tennis Players: Oblivious, Ignorant, or Plain Fearless? Lecturas: Educación Física y Deportes, 28(308), 224-229. https://www.efdeportes.com/efdeportes/index.php/EFDeportes/article/view/7447

 

Abstract

    Currently, professional tennis is an extremely competitive sport that arouses enormous interest when players in the top positions compete against each other. However, the matches between the main favorites and the rookies are also usually interesting because it is in these games that the most unexpected results or surprises can occur. Among other reasons, many players who have recently joined the circuit give everything to win and move forward.

    Keywords: Tennis. Unexpected results. Novice tennis players.

 

Resumen

    Actualmente el tenis profesional es un deporte extremadamente competitivo que suscita enorme interés cuando se enfrentan jugadores ubicados en los primeros puestos. Sin embargo suelen ser también interesantes los partidos entre los principales favoritos y los novatos porque es en estos juegos que se pueden dar los resultados más inesperados o sorpresas. Entre otros motivos, muchos jugadores recién incorporados al circuito dan todo para vencer y seguir adelante.

    Palabras clave: Tenis. Resultados inesperados. Tenistas novatos.

 

Resumo

    Atualmente, o tênis profissional é um esporte extremamente competitivo que desperta enorme interesse quando jogadores nas primeiras posições competem entre si. Porém, os jogos entre os principais favoritos e os estreantes também costumam ser interessantes porque é nestes jogos que podem ocorrer os resultados mais inesperados ou surpresas. Entre outros motivos, muitos jogadores que ingressaram recentemente no circuito dão tudo para vencer e seguir em frente.

    Unitermos: Tênis. Resultados inesperados. Tenistas iniciantes.

 

Lecturas: Educación Física y Deportes, Vol. 28, Núm. 308, Ene. (2024)

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    Tennis is an extremely competitive sport, with top-notch rivalries lasting for years and years between top seeds and star athletes. Tennis players like Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic as well as next-generation talents like Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune, and Jannik Sinner to name a few, are generally dominating the battlefields in nearly every tour and every one of the four Grand Slams each year. 

 

    While matches between players from top rankings have an enormous interest both tennis-wise and spectacle-wise, they are much less interesting for making predictions and forecasts because the odds are generally close to each other - as you will notice in the offerings of bookmakers and sports betting sites in Spain. 

 

    On the contrary, matches between top seeds and rookies can become a far more interesting event betting-wise, but they are not often regarded as the ‘must-see’ games of any tour. That’s usually up until a rookie makes the absolute turnaround and ends up upsetting their opponent, scoring an unexpected victory. 

 

    Such a victory usually comes as a surprise to everyone - including visitors, audiences, operators offering Apostasdesportivas, or even players themselves- despite the fact that nearly all sports fans acknowledge the fluidity, volatility, and uncertainty surrounding tennis. Upsets in tennis are quite frequent, but they usually occur in the non-top-seeded players’ games.

 

Source: Image generator of Designer

 

    It’s more common to have an upset happening in a game where one player is not as high in the ATP or WTA rankings and another player who is not so far, than having an upset happening between a rookie and one of the top seeds of the sport. But when such upsets occur, they are turning things upside down for EVERYONE. 

 

    Many top tennis players have voiced their thoughts about rookies’ approach to a game. Some have expressed their concern that newcomers are largely unaware of what is going on in the field and so they are generally more impulsive, spontaneous or impetuous. Being all that makes them think less about a strategy and rely more on their emotions. Emotions getting in the way, eventually hamper the game and the whole tennis match is somehow degraded. Big tennis players can’t really adjust their own game to less demanding circumstances and just like that they end up losing!

 

    Other top tennis players have attributed the dynamics of rookies in a game that ends up in an upset to their oblivion. They are aware of playing against opponents to whom they have very few realistic chances of winning, but they choose to let this slip off their minds while they are on the court. They choose to play their own game, without trying to adapt to the circumstances and this eventually makes the experienced professional tennis players feel a bit awkward and become disoriented or tuned out. In the end, this disorientation can lead to wrong moves and false estimations, which may ultimately cost these players the entire game. 

 

    And there is another big part of the top seeds that feels the rookies to be predominantly fearless. Newcomers are battling to get rounds passed and they are ready to do anything that it takes. They often take advantage of the fact that the best players will most likely reserve their strength and their game for bigger matches in the subsequent rounds of a tour and that’s when they make their strike.  

 

    Rookies have nothing to lose. They have nothing to worry about. They will give everything they’ve got with the hope that this is enough to get them going down the road. They are not defending any title, nor are they protecting their fame and reserving their strengths for later. Everything that is to be done is to be done right at the moment they have one chance to shine. And for this reason, they are fearless. 

 

    Whatever the reason might be, the thing is that that kind of attitude while at court often brings the more inexperienced right opposite to the highest-ranked players and sometimes results in unexpected wins or simply put, in upsets. That’s the beauty of tennis, though. A sport where how one approaches the game, how one develops their mentality during the game, and how one decides to confront their opponent might be just as important as how one plays.

 

References 

 

ATP Tour (2023). Best ATP Tour Upsets Of 2023: Maroszan, Pecotic Produce Stunners. https://www.atptour.com/en/news/best-of-2023-atp-upsets

 

Lerner, I. (2023). A peculiar phenomenon and its potential explanation in the ATP tennis tour finals for singles. Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 19(1), 27-36. https://doi.org/10.1515/jqas-2022-0043

Lecturas: Educación Física y Deportes, Vol. 28, Núm. 308, Ene. (2024)