Fabio Fognini, in a crisis of results, sees his mind processing too many thoughts during matches. The psychological component in tennis can often make the difference. “Particularly in this period, which is in the final part of my career, I’m suffering a lot from not winning games.
It makes me feel bad. I really want to, I’m attached to what I do. The results are lacking to stop that confidence returning. lets play quiet and that does not make me think. Often the best tennis one plays when he’s not thinking,” he said.
In this ongoing battle between past, present and future, it is not easy for a tennis player of Fognini’s caliber to accept defeats and, above all, to win a few matches. The Italian explained in an exclusive interview with L’Ultimo Uomo magazine: “Over the years I have understood that the psychological component is perhaps the main one in tennis.
There is a huge load of tension, and if you want to excel, the mind does a lot. I have increasingly followed a certain type of mental training, also due to the need to get out of certain situations. I remember one year I was in Paris, one night I woke up almost crying, next to Flavia Pennetta.
I thought I was dying. I was sweating, tachycardia, I didn’t feel my left arm. I thought I was having a heart attack. But no, it was a panic attack. The next day I entered the field and I didn’t know which fish to catch, I couldn’t breathe well.
These panic attacks must be managed, you have to work on it, getting your mind used to exercises. At first I was scared, but not as a tennis player: as a person. It’s not about suffering on the pitch, that’s a suffering I’m willing to try.
But off the pitch I don’t want to suffer like this. I looked for a solution and I found it, but I struggled a lot.”
