Do You Get Nervous Before a Match?
If your stomach knots up before a tennis match, you are completely normal — and in very good company. Pre-match nerves are one of the most common experiences in all of sport, from first-time club players to Grand Slam champions. The goal isn’t to make the nerves disappear; it’s to understand what they are and channel them into sharp, focused play. Here’s what the research says, and a simple routine that works.
By the numbers
of athletes report performance anxiety in a given year
are meaningfully affected by it on competition day
the performance drop severe nerves can cost — like being that undertrained
Sources: sport-psychology research summarised by UPMC and peer-reviewed studies on competitive anxiety.
Why it happens
Nerves are adrenaline. When a match matters to you, your body releases hormones that raise your heart rate and sharpen your senses — the same response that once helped humans react to danger. A moderate dose is exactly what you want: decades of research (the classic Yerkes–Dodson curve) shows performance peaks at a middle level of arousal. Too little and you’re flat; too much and your timing, footwork, and decision-making break down. The players who thrive aren’t the ones without nerves — they’re the ones who keep their arousal in that productive middle zone.
Five ways to turn nerves into focus
Accept the nerves — they mean you care
The adrenaline you feel before a match is your body preparing to perform, not a sign something is wrong. Elite players feel it too; the difference is they read it as readiness rather than threat. Simply telling yourself "I'm excited, not scared" (a reframe researchers call arousal reappraisal) measurably improves performance under pressure.
Build a warm-up routine you repeat every time
Arrive early, do the same mini-tennis, serves, and movement warm-up in the same order before every match. A fixed routine gives your brain something familiar to hold onto and crowds out anxious what-ifs. Consistency before the first point is worth more than any pep talk.
Breathe — long, slow exhales
Nerves speed up your breathing, which keeps your body in fight-or-flight. Four slow breaths with the exhale longer than the inhale (in for 4, out for 6) switches on the calming side of your nervous system in under a minute. Use it in the locker room, at the baseline, and on every changeover.
Focus on the process, not the result
You can't control winning — you can control your first-serve target, your footwork, and your between-point routine. Pick two or three simple process goals ("high first-serve percentage," "split-step every ball") and judge yourself on those. Process goals are inside your control, so they quiet the fear of the scoreline.
Shrink the match to the next point
Thinking about the whole match — or who's watching — is what overwhelms you. Bring your attention back to just the next point, then the one after that. A simple between-point ritual (adjust strings, bounce the ball the same number of times, take a breath) resets you and keeps nerves from snowballing.
Part of our Tennis for Beginners guide.