Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

WHO EARNS AN A+ ON THE FIRST WEEK? The outstanding male players from the first week were undoubtedly Djokovic and Nadal. They continue to march forward in dominant form and look odds on favorites to be contesting for the Singles title next weekend. They have been focused, recorded comfortable wins, and have been generally extremely consistent in each match; just as you would expect from them. But if our two most experienced players have been predictable up until now, much of the first week at Roland Garros has been anything but predictable.  There have been both good and bad surprises during the first week which have given us plenty to talk about. Qualifiers Sebastian Korda, Hugo Gaston, and 17-year-old Dane Clara Tauson all made it through to the main draw and were able to record solid wins.  Coco Gauff was disappointing this year, as was Wawrinka and Daniil Medvedev. Gauff recorded 19 double faults in her 2nd round loss, an extraordinary number of double faults for a club player, l

THE NEW GENERATION The established trio of Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer are under threat. A talented group of Next Generation players are breathing down their necks each week, and the Next Gen players know that the big three can be beaten.  But just who are the best Next Generation players around today?  My picks for the best of these Next Gen players, and possible future world number 1s, include Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Denis Shapavolov.  Other Next Gen players right behind them include Felix Auger-Aliasimme (20), Borna Coric (23), and Alex Rublev (23). They're all knocking at the door as well. For me, Jannik Sinner, from Italy, at 19 years old, is also highly talented and is currently the youngest player in the top 100 (ranked 78). He has the game and temperament to go to #1 and stay there. WHO CAN BE THE NEXT WORLD NUMBER 1? My answer as to who will be the next world number 1 player from our list... none of them! Well, certainly not a long-term

SPORTSMANSHIP "The roughest thing I ever said to an umpire was  'are you sure? "     -  Rod Laver OUTSIDER   "I'm not wanting to be understood or liked, like me or not, I don't care. I am an outsider, that is the way I was brought up'.  -  Jimmy Connors  FOCUS "The ideal state is to be physically loose and mentally tight."        -  Arthur Ashe COMMITMENT  "The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken was involved, but the pig was committed."   -  Martina Navratilova  STRATEGY "Never change a winning game, always change a losing one."  -  Bill Tilden  KILLER INSTINCT "When you've got your man down, rub him out."     - Rod Laver LOSING "You never really cancel the fear of losing, you keep challenging it."    -  Arthur Ashe  CONCENTRATION   "Concentration is born on the practice court... you must mentally treat your practice sessions as matches, concentrating

Here are 6 typical tennis problems that I hear from players all the time and ways for you to fix them. 1. I GET NERVOUS      The first thing you need to understand is that it's natural for you to get nervous while you compete. The problem, however is that only some players actually acknowledge that getting scared is part of tennis . Instead, they try to block out the nerves, often by distracting the mind and bringing it to focus on something else. This is a very Western way of dealing with your nervousness.  Timothy Gallwey's best-selling book "The Inner Game of tennis", while an excellent book and really the first tennis book that dealt with the mental side of our game, mainly used distraction as its preferred method of dealing with players who had problems handling their nerves. Using distraction to combat nerves can work under relatively mild stressful situations, but it's unreliable during really stressful situations such as important matches. Timothy Gallwey&