The Problem of Finishing

A common problem: falling apart on the verge of victory. In my consulting with aspiring young tournament players and even with touring pros one of the most common problems I hear is, "When I am serving for the set or the match I often get nervous and play a terrible game to let my opponent back in, and then my own game falls apart." This rarely happens when players are truly confident and much better than their opponents. But when they are worse or about even and/or lack confidence, it happens often. A variation of this complaint is, "I get ahead in a set, then become over-confident, relax, and my opponent comes back to beat me." Over confidence, though, is not really the problem, as we will see. These players all think there is something wrong with them, that they are abnormal, but they aren't. Both of these complaints are quite normal symptoms of the difficulty of finishing, and finishing is a prime mental hurdle to be overcome in any closely contested tennis match. Most players get nervous when they are ahead rather than behind. When I ask players, from beginners to world champions, when they get the most nervous...