The Importance of High-Pressure Tennis Tiebreakers

The WTA finals in Riad, Saudi Arabia, gather the best players of the year for a final confrontation. The fact that the tournament present only the best game of the game does not close the sets in the last two years, approximately so many sets have decided 6-0 or 6-1, since they are 7-5 or 7-6.

But it is the success or failure in those 7-6 sets, decided by a seven-point Tiebebraker, what it can do or the switch season and its season end.

“The mentality is the most important part of Tiebraker,” said Pam Shriver, a member of the Hall of Fame, ESPN analyst and coach of the 19th Donna Vekic. Shriver, who won 21 Grand Slams in doubles, said having someone next to her helped her calm and clear during the tiebreaker. “When you take your time, things fall in place. The athlete who hastened the duration of a tiebreaker gets into trouble.”

IgA Swatek dominated Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-0 last year in the final of the tournament, and she is also the best in Trebreeakers between the Eight elite: in the last two years, Swiatek has 6-2 unpaid against the advantage in Thourament. (The third range of classification coconut is 4-2 and can also have an advantage).

“You must be more focused on the tiebreaker, especially in the first point because to start well,” said the sixth classification of Jasmine Paolini. (She has 2-2 in tiebreaker versus the 10 best players in the last two years).

Shriver says that most players include tiebreaker at the end of the practice, but many do not emphasize how to deal with those situations. However, Paolini said he really did not practice for the tiebreaker.

Pere Riba, the Qinwen Zheng coach, in the seventh place, said that his tiebreaker in practice were not just tie up, but “of” playing and working on something specific “, while others strive to replicate the situation of the game.

“You just have to get used to playing them and administering the score line through the experience in matches,” said Jessica’s fourth classification, noting that although the male tour is full of large servers that can seven points of the women of Teven Points.

But Shriver, who said he believed that even visualization exercises outside the court could help prepare for tiebreaker, was worth practicing for more than just play points.

“You can’t double crazy emotions of a tiebreaker, but I think rehearsing it can implement adrenaline and help with the real ones,” he said. “These are things that you can improve.” (He pointed out that Grand Slams now used 10 -point super corbbus tractors such as the decisive factor in third sets, which required a slightly different mentality).

Aryna Sabalenkka, number 1, the champion of the Open of this year, said the players could prepare. (She has 3-2 racing against the 10 best players in the last two years).

“I play many unpaid with my hearing partner, who faces me with pressure to work to overcome the difficult points,” he said.

There is also debate about the best approach when the set is at stake, which to some extent is broken down into the game style.

“The mental challenge in the tiebreaker is to continue playing aggressively, move on for his shots, press his opponent,” said Sabalenka, known for his aggressive game style. “You have to trust your game and simply go for it. You don’t want to be overprotectors.”

On the contrary, Pegula said he played “a little safer” in the tiebreaker. In a complete game, he said, players have more margin of error if they explode and lose a first service.

“In a tiebreaker, I look for a higher percentage in my first service, so there is not so much pressure on my second service, and I hit with more manifestations of margin tray,” he said. “If you feel pressure, then your opponent is also, so pressing them to shoot is a good idea.”

Shriver said that obtaining the first service and the shot at stake was special important in the tiebreaker and that the trick was to hit with more margin of error, but without getting tentative.

“Hiting big but in the middle is a way to do it,” said that, in the beginning, some champions like Monica Seles succeeded in “hitting more and stronger in those great moments.”

Ultimately, Riba said, it doesn’t always make sense to have a specific approach for tiebreaker. “Each situation is different, so you have to read the situation,” he said. “How the player is a feeling at the time is the most important.”

With the training of the court now allowed, Shriver said that beyond keeping a quiet player, a coach must focus only a simple thing before or last a tiebreaker. “It could be something like,” the right of your opponent is beginning to break, so choose that, “he said.

Sabalenka said that while winning a two -game set was better because you broke the service of your opponent more, surviving the Mental Gantlet of the Tiebraker could an impulse for the next set. “You feel energized for being able to go through that,” he said.

Paolini said that the loser of a tiebreaker faced an additional challenge, having a leg so close to victory. She said that after losing a tiebraker, it was vital to restart mentally and do it quickly, before the next set escaped. “It is special important in the first set of the next set,” he said

Shriver said that at the beginning of the WTA finals, the meantime of the Round-Robin format than in the first games there were actually less pressure than usual for the Tierrantes. But then it changes surprisingly. “In the semifinals and the finals, which can put an exclamation point in their year, those tiebreakers mean a lot.”