Visualize the match the night before you play. Naomi Osaka uses this well-studied technique: "Visualization allows me to see myself executing flawless shots and dominating the tennis court." How to do it: Picture the specific shot and your target, for example, where your serve will land in the box, by how much your groundstrokes clear the net, or decisively putting away a poach. Why it works: Your brain doesn't fully distinguish between a vividly imagined experience and a real one — brain-imaging research has found that imagining a movement and performing it activate the same regions of the brain. Mentally rehearsing specific scenarios builds familiarity before you've lived them, so they feel less novel — and less threatening — when they happen for real.

Set 1-3 specific goals for the match — not simply “to win.” Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams' former coach, recommends: "Stop thinking about winning before a single point has been played… enter the court with match goals. What are my 1-3 clear goals for this match?" Something concrete, like "attack every short ball," works far better than "play well." Why it works: "Win" isn't something you can directly act on: it's an outcome, not a behavior. More specific goals give you direction on what you need to execute, which produces better focus than an abstract outcome you can't directly control.

Find an absorbing, non-tennis hobby to decrease anxiety. Iga Świątek builds elaborate Lego sets during the unpredictable, long waits that come with professional tennis to calm herself and keep her mind from wandering unhelpfully. Why it works: An absorbing, unrelated task occupies your mind fully enough to interrupt anxious anticipatory thinking during the kind of open-ended waiting that breeds it. The activity doesn't matter — having one consistent, absorbing off-switch for dead, unstructured time does.

Build a fun pre-match ritual with a partner. One way Aryna Sabalenka transformed her game was by injecting lighthearted rituals into her pre-match preparation. Before matches, she has used a Sharpie to write or draw on her fitness coach’s bald head — her signature, a doodle, or a specific phrase. Before her 2026 Australian Open quarterfinal, she wrote "No pain no gain" before beating Iva Jovic 6-3, 6-0. You don't need anything nearly this offbeat — a “secret” handshake, joke, or phrase works the same way. If you play doubles, you can build this habit with your partner. Why it works:

🕵️‍♀️TRIVIA ANSWER: The pop star was Britney Spears, performing in an iconic outfit color-matched to an oversized tennis ball at the height of her “…Baby One More Time” fame. The tennis player was Serena Williams, who beat Martina Hingis to win her first major title, at 17 years old — the beginning of a career that would eventually produce 23 Grand Slam singles titles.

🤣Will my opponent ever actually serve?!

How to Behave Yourself at the US Open. There’s been a lot of chat about badly behaved influencers, noise, and etiquette this year…

😭Can you watch this without tearing up? One of the most touching moments ever on a tennis court.

Looking for tennis inspo? We’ve heard good things about Unstoppable: My Life So Far, the memoir by former world number one, Maria Sharapova.