Losing to Worse Opponents, Part I: What does it mean?

As a coach, I often hear complaints from players that they’re losing to opponents that are worse than they are. Losing to “bad” players is nothing new in sports, but it’s especially common in tennis. While there are practical reasons for these losses, players should understand that these matchups reveal truths about the nature of winning.

One of these truths is that winning is a skill in itself; it is the ability to convert opportunity into success. This contradicts many players’ beliefs that success in tennis is purely a combination of physical skill, experience, and willpower. While these qualities are very important, they are negatively affected by pressure and expectation. Under pressure, physical skill breaks down, decision-making becomes cloudy, and the will to win turns to over-anxiousness.

To combat pressure and expectation, players must cultivate genuine confidence. That is, they must be familiar with the opportunity to win and know the feeling success that follows. By comparison, players that exclusively compete against superior opponents may have winning insecurity; their competitive mentality is damaged because they see fewer winning opportunities and experience frequent failure when opportunities arise. These insecurities then manifest against worse opponents, and players overreact in winnable positions.

This brings me to a second truth about the nature of winning: we ought to practice winning if we want to win more. Athletes generally believe that they will win more by continually challenging themselves in difficult practices and against superior opponents. Although challenge hardens our will and toughens our bodies, we should practice from winnable positions just as often as we practice in difficulty.

Playing against worse opponents will offer more opportunities to convert into success, and we should embrace the challenges of playing down on a regular basis. Lower level opponents force us to work on fundamentals, practice finishing points, and experiment with alternative strategies. Getting wins against these players cultivates a confident competitive mentality that we’ll want to carry into matches against stronger opponents.

During long training blocks, I personally recommend playing with lower level opponents around 40% of the time. I would then lower this number to 25% if a competition approaches and look to play my last practice match against someone I can beat.

EF