​

Why Tennis Players Spend 80% of a Match Fighting the Wrong Opponent

Most tennis players believe their biggest challenge is across the net — the opponent. But the deeper truth is this: you spend more time battling yourself than you do your rival. The real match is internal — and if you're not prepared to win that one, your physical game won’t be enough.

In this article, we’ll explore what that hidden battle looks like, why it’s happening, and how to start training for it — just like you train for your serve or your forehand.​
​

The 80/20 Match Breakdown

Let’s break this down. According to research by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), only about 20% of a tennis match is actual playing time. The other 80% is spent between points — walking, thinking, breathing, resetting.

So while you're only hitting the ball for a small part of the match, your mind is active the entire time — managing emotions, reacting to pressure, and dealing with doubt. And here’s the truth most players miss: your toughest opponent isn’t across the net — it’s the one in your own head.

That’s a huge problem because tennis training is out of balance. Most of your training focuses on physical repetition — drills, fitness, technique. But when matches are won or lost inside the head, the mental game can’t be treated as an afterthought.

When the match is on the line, the first thing that usually breaks isn’t your forehand — it’s your focus, your emotions, or your effort. But those things aren’t always visible. What people see is the mistake: the missed forehand, the double fault, the poor shot selection. That’s why it’s easy to blame the technique.

But in most cases, the mistake is just the result of losing control of your mind first. Everything starts in the mind — and when that breaks down, the body follows.

Think about your last match. Did you feel your energy drop after a few missed shots? Did your mind start spiraling with doubt or frustration? How often did your emotions or self-talk take over and pull you out of the moment — long before the scoreboard did?

​

What “Fighting Yourself” Really Means
​The hardest opponent in tennis isn't the one standing across the net — it’s the voice inside your head. I call it the saboteur mind. It's that voice that shows up when the pressure is on and makes you feel nervous, unsure, or even scared.

It might sound like this:

• "Please just make this one… don’t mess it up again.
  ​
• "Don’t blow this like last time."
  ​
• "What am I doing here? I don't belong here."
  ​

That voice doesn’t just annoy you — it actually changes how you play. Suddenly you stop playing freely. You get tight. You play safe. And the match starts slipping away — not because of your opponent, but because of that voice.

These thoughts aren’t just random. They show up again and again because your brain has gotten used to thinking this way under pressure. The saboteur mind is a habit — and the longer you ignore it, the more control it takes over your game.

​

Why Most Players Are Unprepared Mentally
​Tennis players train obsessively on the physical side. Hours of hitting. Drilling. Conditioning. Technique.

But ask yourself: how many hours have you spent training your mind?
​Not thinking about tennis. Not hyping yourself up. Training. Like routines, breathing, emotional resets, awareness, and concentration practices.

Most players walk into matches mentally unprepared — and they don’t realize it until it’s too late. The problem is that both parts — physical and mental — are always working together during a match. And if one of them is weak, it drags the other one down. You can hit the ball perfectly in practice, but if your mind breaks down at 5–4, none of that matters.

Training your mind isn’t just about being positive all the time. It’s about learning how to stay calm, focused, and clear under pressure. It’s about building mental habits that support your game when it matters most. If your physical skills are strong but your mental game is shaky, you won’t be able to compete at your real level — and that’s what costs players matches they should have won.

​

The First Step to Winning the Internal Match
​You can't fix your mindset just by telling yourself to focus or stay calm. The truth is, most players don’t actually know what’s happening inside their head during a match — they just feel the frustration, the pressure, or the panic.

That’s why awareness is the first step. You have to understand which mental habits are helping you and which ones are dragging your game down. The better you understand yourself, the more you can actually train the part of your game that shows up during those 5–4, 30–40 moments.

To help with that, you can take a quiz called the Mental Edge Assessment. It’s not a quiz for fun. It’s designed to measure which mental skills are strong and which are taking you down. It will give you a clear picture of how you score against categories like pressure, frustration, focus, and your own self-talk.

Once you have that clarity, the next step is training. Just like you build your fitness or your forehand, your mental skills need daily work. That’s how you give yourself a chance to stop losing to yourself and start playing at your real level.

​

Conclusion
​If you want to improve your rankings, it would be smart to start training the part of the game you're being challenged 80% of the time — your mind. This is the kind of tennis performance tip that can change everything for you, but it has to start with a shift in how you prepare to compete.

​Take the quiz and see where you stand. What you find might surprise you, but that’s where real progress begins.

​