Overcoming Choking

Jana Novotna: one of the great chokes in tennis history in 1993. Many great champions have been chokers but winners, suffering from shaky nerves on important points. What these players all realize eventually is that nerves come and go. They can choke on one point or in one match and later, in an almost identical situation, come through and play beautifully. This allows them to get past the choked points and matches and remain motivated and hopeful. And their examples should give hope to the rest of us. The most famous of these choker champions was Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic, who, in the 1993 Wimbledon final, led Steffi Graf 4-1 in the third, 40-15, up two service breaks on her own serve. She was a serve-volley player and Graf had a relatively weak sliced backhand, which makes for a very bad passing shot, especially on grass. These were substantial advantages for Novotna, but her disadvantage was her well-known propensity...