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    The Mental Health of Tennis Players Is No Longer in the Shadows

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    The sport is very stressful, and many professionals had to often manage their anxiety alone. Now the tours provide help.Robin Soderling was at the peak of his prowess when the walls started crumbling.In 2009, when Soderling was just 24, he stunned the four-time defending champion Rafael Nadal en route to the final of the French Open.Soderling reached the final again in 2010, losing to Nadal. By the end of the season, Soderling was ranked No. 4 in the world.Eight months later, he played his final match on the ATP Tour.“I always felt like I was under pressure,” Soderling, now 37, said on a video call from his home near Stockholm. “The better I became, the worse it got. Basically, every match I played I was the favorite. When I won, it was more of a relief than happy. When I lost, it was a disaster. Losing a tennis match made me feel like a terrible person.”When anxiety and panic attacks forced Robin Soderling of Sweden out of competition a decade ago, such issues weren’t talked about, he said. “There was such a big stigma.”Oscar Del Pozo/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesExpectations were high as soon as he had success as a junior. But by the time he was 26, Soderling was done, having experienced anxiety and panic attacks as well as debilitating mononucleosis.“My entire immune system was bad because of the mental stress I put on myself,” he said. “Even on my rest days I was never switched off. Then my body just tipped over. I went from being able to play a five-set match on clay to not being able to walk up the stairs. But I couldn’t really talk to many people about it because there was such a big stigma.”Sports psychologists are now a regular presence on the Women’s Tennis Association and ATP Tours. And almost no one is afraid to talk about it. At last year’s WTA Finals, most of the eight top singles players spoke freely about receiving counseling for mental health issues.“I’ve been working with a psychologist for years,” said Maria Sakkari, a semifinalist at the French and United States Opens in 2021. “I invested a lot in that. It’s probably the best gift I’ve ever done for myself.”Because tennis is an individual sport, most players are on their own with limited support networks. They travel for 11 months of the year and almost everyone regularly loses.“Tennis is one of the toughest sports because there are constant changes that sports with a consistent schedule don’t have,” said Danielle Collins, a top 30 player. “We never know what time we’re going to play. We travel from city to city each week on different continents, with different cultures, even different foods. We even play with different tennis balls. And we lose every week unless you win the tournament. That’s something that you have to adjust to.”Last October, on World Mental Health Day, Iga Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champion, announced she was donating $50,000 in prize money to a mental-health organization. She is open about the value of having the psychologist Daria Abramowicz as a member of her traveling staff. Venus Williams has partnered with the WTA to donate $2 million to BetterHelp, an online therapy site, to provide free service.Sports psychology and mental wellness are not new concepts. Ivan Lendl hired the therapist Alexis Castorri in 1985 to help him after he had lost three straight U.S. Open finals. He went on to win the next three. But only recently have players been so open about seeking counseling.Mardy Fish, the former touring pro and captain of the United States Davis Cup team, opened the discussion when he said he had panic attacks before his fourth-round match against Roger Federer at the 2012 U.S. Open. Fish withdrew from that match and was subsequently diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. He shed light on his journey in a Netflix documentary.Iga Swiatek of Poland, who won the French Open in 2020, has a psychologist on her traveling staff.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesNaomi Osaka made headlines last May when she dropped out of the French Open, citing mental health concerns. She lost in the third round at the U.S. Open in September, and just returned to the tour in Australia this month.Jim Loehr, a clinical psychologist, has been practicing since the 1970s and founded the Center for Athletic Excellence in Denver. He has seen the field evolve.“Back then, people were very quiet about seeing anyone who could help their game mentally,” said Loehr, who is also a co-founder of the Human Performance Institute. “And we couldn’t talk about it either because our work is confidential. Now, everyone seems to have a sports psychologist.“That makes perfect sense,” he said. “Athletes need a team around them in order to ignite extraordinary performances. A coach is there for biomechanical expertise in stroke production. Then there are physios and massage therapists to facilitate healing and trainers, nutritionists, sports psychologists, even spiritual advisers. The body is pretty complicated, and it works best when all parts are integrated. The healthier and happier you are, the more you light it up on the court.”The WTA and the ATP have also taken note of the importance of well-being. The ATP has teamed with Sporting Chance, a British mental health organization. ATP players can call counselors and therapists 24 hours a day, seven days a week.“We have a hand-in-hand collaboration that makes it feel like an in-house service,” said Ross Hutchins, a former tour player and the ATP’s chief tour officer. “The goal is to make players more open to talking about their issues in a more comfortable manner. They may not want to chitchat about it the way they would with physical injuries, but we want to make it OK for them to feel any way they do.”Maria Sakkari, a semifinalist at the French and United States Opens in 2021, said she has long worked with a psychologist. “It’s probably the best gift I’ve ever done for myself.”Hector Vivas/Getty Images The WTA, which has offered mental health services for more than 20 years, recently began a more aggressive approach by adding four mental health care providers, one of whom is at tournaments year-round. Services include strategies for managing the mental and emotional challenges of match play, handling finances, and transitioning to life after tennis.“Our job is to help the athletes be their best outside of the court,” said Becky Ahlgren Bedics, the WTA’s vice president for mental health and wellness. “We don’t touch the X’s and O’s. We’re part of the holistic development. We are there to help with the pebble in your shoe during a run. We say, ‘Let’s stop and take the pebble out before it gets to be a bigger problem.’”The major championships are on board as well. At the Australian Open, which begins on Monday, a sports psychiatrist and psychologist are available to players. So are health and well-being experts. There are quiet rooms where players can relax and focus without distraction. There are even soundproof, private pods within the player areas.Victoria Azarenka, a two-time Australian Open champion, said the tours were taking the right steps.“I think the world is changing their perception of what mental health is,” she said. “We have that empathy when we see somebody who is physically hurt. Mental health is something that is invisible. But it is as strong, as powerful, as physical health.”Soderling doesn’t play much tennis anymore, other than with his two children. After multiple attempts at a comeback, each time followed by another panic attack, he stopped. Now he owns RS Sports, a sportswear company, and serves as captain of the Swedish Davis Cup team. He considers himself healed and will help anyone who asks.“As an athlete we’re treated to the best medical care you could have if you have a knee or a wrist injury,” Soderling said. “But it’s taken a long time to work with the mental aspect. It’s a shame it’s called mental health because it was not only in my head. My whole body was affected.“I’m glad to see there’s a better understanding of mental health today,” he added. “But it’s sad that it had to happen to so many people before it was taken seriously.” More

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      Naomi Osaka and the Changing Power Dynamics in Sports

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      With relatively few words, she said a lot as she bowed out of the French Open on her terms, reflecting the growing empowerment of athletes.Thirteen sentences.That’s all we got from Naomi Osaka as she bowed out of the French Open on Monday after causing a ruckus over her plan to skip post-match news conferences. She did not speak those sentences. They were posted on her Instagram account. Nor did she provide anything like deep explanation. A global icon at age 23, Osaka left unclear when she would return to the women’s tour. She revealed for the first time that she had struggled with depression since beating Serena Williams in a controversy-cloaked final at the United States Open in 2018.Thirteen sentences.That was all she needed to rock the sports world and to provide another lesson in the increasing power of athletes to own their message and set their terms.She waded briefly into the water, made a splash and stepped away.Using social media posts, first last Wednesday then on Monday, Osaka called out one of the most traditional practices in major sports: the obligatory news conference, vital to reporters seeking insight for their stories, but long regarded by many elite athletes as a plank walk.After monumental wins and difficult losses, Osaka has giggled and reflected through news conferences and also dissolved into tears. In Paris, she said she wanted nothing to do with the gatherings because they had exacted a steep emotional toll.So in her slim posts she sent a message with significant weight:The days of the Grand Slam tournaments and the huge media machine behind them holding all of the clout are done.In a predominantly white, ritual-bound sport, a smooth-stroking young woman of Black and Asian descent, her confidence still evolving on and off the court, holds the power.Get used to it.Intentionally or not, Osaka stands at the leading edge of a broad, transformational movement in athlete empowerment. What she does with this role will say a great deal about the power shift, for better or worse.This much is clear. By walking away from the French Open as she did, Osaka became an obsession in the sports world and far beyond.Pundits, fans, fellow players and people who typically care little about athletes are analyzing her motivations. They worry about her future in tennis and, of course, her mental health.They project what they want onto her and argue accordingly.Some commentators say the press goes too far in dissecting athletes. Others say that Osaka is somehow symbolic of a new, far-too-coddled breed of star.Still others suggest she struggles from being racially isolated, the rare champion of color in a tennis world dominated by fans, officials and a press corps that is overwhelmingly white.One social media post, assessing Osaka’s refusal to play beyond the first round of the French Open, compared her to Malcolm X.And yet, once again, as befits a celebrity in our times, Osaka hewed to a minimalist approach. Thirteen sentences, just under 350 words, are all that exist for fans and foes to parse.It is impossible to know the depth of Osaka’s internal anguish.But we do know she has had difficulty coping on the world stage at a young age.“The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open of 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that,” she wrote, before noting that she often wears headphones during tournaments to “dull my social anxiety.”She arrived in France committed to drawing a line and engaging in a power play with tennis officials who have a difficult time with anything that disrupts the status quo.When Osaka took to social media last week and announced she wasn’t going to attend post-match news conferences, the game’s power brokers got their backs up, fined her $15,000 and threatened her with suspension.Did she quit to get back at them, to show that she has the clout, and not them?We don’t know because Osaka didn’t elaborate, and she definitely isn’t speaking to reporters.That’s fitting — and unnerving to a journalist — because like so many of the biggest stars in modern sports, Osaka is now much more than an athlete.She lives in the world of celebrity inhabited by her idol, Serena Williams. Osaka is famed not just for the four Grand Slam titles she has won since 2018 or because the $37.4 million she earned in the past year made her the highest-paid female athlete in the world.Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam tournament champion, holds the No. 2 singles ranking.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesHer background — raised primarily in the United States by a Japanese mother and an Afro-Haitian father — gives her a potent allure. Add to the mix a disarming personality and a willingness to enter the fray on social issues that emerged during the pandemic, and she has become tennis’s newest supernova.So it comes as no surprise that she feels less need to deal with the traditional press.Such is the way of the modern celebrity — be they an athlete, an entertainer, a business tycoon or a political leader. They are all looking for workarounds, ways to tell their stories as they prefer, usually in short bursts, offering small tendrils of their lives and their opinions, their triumphs and pain, often without the depth that comes from great journalism.It wasn’t always this way. Think about the powerful insights Muhammad Ali gave in interviews with David Frost — meditations in which Ali opened up about race, power, civil rights and the Vietnam War. In tennis, Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe would speak at length about the most pressing topics. You knew not only where they stood, but also about their motivations, the evolution of their thinking and their visions of the future.Athletes still speak out, but they tend to do so on their own terms — very often limited to 280 characters on Twitter.One of the highlights of sports in 2020 was Osaka’s willingness to go against the grain in tennis and take a stand against racial injustice. She decided not to play one day at a tournament last summer to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, saying on social media, “Before I am an athlete, I am a black woman.”Point made. Message delivered. The tournament paused for a day, allowing Osaka to keep her promise without defaulting.She then went to the U.S. Open and again seized the conversation. This time it was with the masks she wore — adorned with the names of Black victims ofracist violence — as she took to the court for each of the seven matches she played on her way to winning the tournament.“What was the message you wanted to send?” she was asked.“Well, what was the message that you got?” she replied, in a way that was heartfelt, simple and profound. “I feel like the point is to make people start talking.”And that was it. She seized the moment with a snippet, directed the conversation by giving up little, and by turning the question back on itself.What was the message that you got? What do you, the fan, the reporter in the media scrum, the casual observer, see in me?Whatever it is, deal with it.She said much the same this week in Paris, delivered this time in 13 spare sentences. A strong statement, no doubt, and one that fits with the tone and technology of the present day, but count me among those who want to hear more. More

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      The Brain Within the Brain of a Rising Tennis Queen

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Brain Within the Brain of a Rising Tennis QueenIga Swiatek of Poland came out of nowhere to win the French Open in October. A sports psychologist was with her all the way.Sports psychologist Daria Abramowicz, right, watches Polish tennis star Iga Swiatek during a hitting practice at Melbourne Park in the week before the Australian Open.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesFeb. 7, 2021, 1:00 a.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — In October, a teenager from Poland, Iga Swiatek, stunned the tennis world when she came out of nowhere to win the French Open.She was ranked No. 54 heading into the tournament yet won the singles championship without losing a set in any of her seven matches. The run instantly made her one of the top young stars in tennis, a celebrity in Poland and a favorite to play deep into the Australian Open, which begins Monday.Swiatek’s unusual breakout — and whatever may follow for the 19-year-old — has come in part because of her unusual strategy of allowing a mental health and psychology coach to play a central role in her training since very early in her career.The coach, Daria Abramowicz, 33, is a former competitive sailor who has spent much of the past decade trying to bring mental health and psychology to the fore in sports in Poland. She has been a constant presence at Swiatek’s matches since 2019 and can often be seen on the court during her practices, watching closely with her arms crossed, trying to peer into Swiatek’s mind.They talk off the court for hours on end about Swiatek’s fears and her dreams. They work to deepen Swiatek’s relationships with relatives and friends, the people who can provide emotional stability — “the human anchor,” Abramowicz calls it.During practice, Swiatek sometimes wears medical instruments that measure her stress level by monitoring the activity of her heart and brain. Ahead of the Australian Open, she watched and reflected on a documentary about Princess Diana to better understand the pitfalls of sudden fame. On Saturday afternoon, two days before her opening match in Melbourne, she went to the beach.“My life changed,” Swiatek, 19, said recently, answering questions from the Melbourne hotel room where she had spent 19 hours each day for two weeks during the limited quarantine required of players because of the coronavirus pandemic. “There is a little bit more pressure.”Many top tennis players consult with mental coaches, but Abramowicz works with Swiatek much more frequently than usual for the sport. Abramowicz also takes a counterintuitive approach of prioritizing gratitude, human relationships and personal growth as a path to winning.At this level, every player has beautiful strokes and athleticism. What often separates the merely great tennis player from the champion, or a one-time Grand Slam champion from a dominating repeat winner, is having the fortitude to prevail on those few key points on which a match turns.“We talk a lot about positive and destructive passions,” Abramowicz said in an interview. “Perfectionism is not so helpful, so we tried to create positive passion, determination and grit. You embrace your potential in pursuit of excellence. You go for the best, but at the end of the day you are human and you have other aspects to your life, and it doesn’t mean when you lose your match you are less worthy as a human being.”Abramowicz said that self-confidence and close relationships built on trust were crucial to supporting attributes like motivation, stress management and communication that drive athletic success.“It is impossible to become a champion when you don’t have a fundamental joy and your needs fulfilled and satisfied as a human being,” Abramowicz said.That may be debatable. Tennis, like other sports, has had plenty of champions who were miserable at times, even when they were on top. Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, who are now married to each other, and more recently Victoria Azarenka, have had plenty of success during unhappy periods in their personal lives. That said, Abramowicz has pushed Swiatek to embrace the idea that she can achieve lasting success far more easily and certainly more enjoyably if she approaches tennis not as life itself but as one part of it.“It is important to have peace so you can focus on working,” Swiatek said. “It is not only true for tennis players but for any person who wants to succeed and is doing extraordinary things.”The tennis court is like the sea.Abramowicz was a prospect in Poland’s sailing program before she studied sports psychology.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesAbramowicz’s journey to Team Swiatek began 15 years ago, when Abramowicz was an 18-year-old rising prospect in Poland’s national sailing program. After a national regatta, Abramowicz fell 10 feet from a trailer while packing a sailboat, shattering her left wrist.After the accident, she could no longer sail competitively and felt empty and alone. But two weeks later, a coach asked if she might serve as an unofficial coach at a regatta in Italy because she had sailed at the venue before..“It lifted me up and showed me the new path,” Abramowicz said.She continued to coach as she studied sports and psychology. As her knowledge deepened, she created a website to write about mental health in sports.By the time Abramowicz earned a postgraduate degree in psychology in 2016, she had a growing reputation in sports in Poland because of her push for athletes to be more open about their mental needs. Then in February 2019, a member of Swiatek’s management team called to ask if she would be interested in working with a still maturing young tennis player with seemingly limitless potential. Swiatek can mash her groundstrokes and execute soft drop volleys off passing shots rocketed her way, but at times she struggled mentally during matches.The pairing was a gamble. What might a sailor know about the rigors of elite tennis? Abramowicz said the two pursuits were strikingly similar.A competitive sailor has to sense the changing conditions of the wind, to see the puffs of water during a race, just as a tennis player must absorb and adjust to the rhythms of a match. During tennis matches and solo sailing races, there is no team to rely on.If you become exhausted or flustered, it is all on you.After the call from Swiatek’s management team, Abramowicz flew to Budapest to watch her next match. As she watched, she saw a competitive fire in Swiatek that she had rarely seen in a young athlete.Afterward, Swiatek told her she was flattered that Abramowicz had come all the way to Hungary to see her play. She knew little about sports psychology beyond the notion that it might make her a better player.Swiatek uses stress tests and sudoku puzzles.Swiatek needed three sets to beat Kaja Juvan in a tuneup tournament before the Australian Open.Credit…Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesSometimes, before Swiatek takes the court for practices, Abramowicz attaches a heart rate variability sensor to her to measure the tension Swiatek is experiencing during high-stress moments. Other times, she has Swiatek strap on a device that measures brain waive oscillation to detect stress.The goal is to use every tool available to train Swiatek’s mind to manage the adrenaline and pressure of a match. At the 2020 Australian Open, Abramowicz noticed how Swiatek became both calmer and more locked in if she spent the hours before her matches working on homework, especially math.Swiatek graduated from high school last year and does not have homework anymore. So Abramowicz now has her work on crossword puzzles or sudokus as a cognitive warm-up. Other top players often use the same downtime to listen to music or binge-watch television shows.The approach is similar to that of another athlete whom Abramowicz has challenged Swiatek to emulate in many ways: the champion skier Mikaela Shiffrin, who often does word searches before her races to relax and focus her brain. Swiatek tries to watch all of Shiffrin’s races. Abramowicz points to Shiffrin, who became a world champion at 17 and is a huge star in Europe, as a model for how to manage success and expectations without letting fame spiral out of control.Consider this: A year ago, over dinner at the Australian Open, Swiatek told Naomi Osaka, the three-time Grand Slam champion, that she was considering going to college instead of playing professional tennis.“I was telling her she’s really good, and I think she’s going to do really well, so maybe don’t try to divert your energy to college just yet,” Osaka recalled last week.After her championship, the work shifted.Swiatek did not lose a set in the French Open in her run to that title.Credit…Christophe Ena/Associated PressThrough her work with Abramowicz, Swiatek has been changing from a player motivated solely by results — a common trait, especially among young players — into someone who, as she put it, can “be happy even when you are not winning.”That goal morphs over time.As Swiatek played match point at the French Open against Sofia Kenin, Abramowicz tried to figure out where to shift their focus. Ahead of the Australian Open, Abramowicz and Swiatek have been working on managing life as a favorite and an international star.“We have prepared for success,” Abramowicz said.Last week, Swiatek competed in her first tournament since October. Given the layoff, she tried before the tournament to put every expectation for winning out of her mind.“I won against some of the great players,” Swiatek said Saturday. “That can really, like, mess with the head sometimes.”Showing the rust, she needed three sets to defeat Kaja Juvan, a 20-year-old Slovenian, and then lost decisively, 6-4, 6-2, to Ekaterina Alexandrova, the veteran Russian.Now comes the next Grand Slam. Much of Poland is watching closely. As always, Abramowicz will be, too.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Kevin Durant Says He’s Ready to Return. ‘It’ll Come Naturally.’

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesWho Gets the Vaccine First?Vaccine TrackerFAQAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyKevin Durant Says He’s Ready to Return. ‘It’ll Come Naturally.’Durant, the Nets star, said he felt “solid” after missing all of last season with an Achilles’ tendon injury. It has been almost 18 months since his last N.B.A. game.Kevin Durant said he had been training “as hard as I could” to prepare for this season, when he and Kyrie Irving are expected to play together for the first time.Credit…Kathy Willens/Associated PressBy More