10 Minutes of Tennis: What YOU can learn from the Monte Carlo ATP 1000

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With that said, let's get started with 10 minutes of tennis.

Today is 10 minutes of tennis with World renowned tennis coach Australian in Puerto Rico

Justin Yeo.

Today I want to talk about Monte Carlo, but not necessarily in the same way that we typically

would in owing and eyeing about who beat who.

I'm thinking more along the lines of something Carlos Alcarez said Justin.

And I'm going to quote him if you don't mind if I do a little longer introduction here,

but I'm going to give you a quote that I got from Carlos.

I didn't get it personally, of course.

He says, "I'm pretty sure that it's going to be difficult months ahead because a lot

of people have high expectations of me having a really good clay season.

Probably they want me to win almost every tournament.

So it's going to be difficult to deal with."

But one thing that I learned in the past few months is I have to think about myself.

I have to just think about my people, my team, my family, my friends, and my close friends.

No matter what happens on the court, if I win, if I lose, I just have to leave the court

happy.

Justin, what's he talking about?

I used to just talk about perspective.

Just keep him perspective.

Keep it narrow, keep it small, keep it tight.

Because he's team and he's people that are close to him, love him, proud of him, no matter

what the end result.

That way he can minimize his focus in keeping self where he's supposed to be.

When he thinks about the fans in a very broad respect and then all the media that has something

to say, then that seems to affect his enjoyment, but he's confidence in who he is on the court.

He needs to just narrow his focus down like he's saying and keep that focus there.

Because as soon as he thinks too broad, he starts to get affected by everything.

We need to understand too that players are affected way more than in the past because social

media and messages and interviews.

Even the players back in the 80s, they really didn't even come and have an interview.

Now they have to end the interview as soon as they come off the court.

That's funny that, but bringing up the golf masters that just happened on the weekend,

Larry and a few other players were like, "Hey man, I got a double bogey in my last two

holes.

Last thing I want to do is talk to you right now on my microphone."

Give me half an hour, just to, right?

It is a mental thing that we all seem to just forget about.

If we want to pass that down to the regular Joe Blow that plays on a USDA or Alta Tennis

or whatever, on a weekend, even if it's you and a week in their playing, the more you can

narrow things down, turn the phone off, disconnect, focus on what you're trying to accomplish

on the day.

Sometimes I think people when they're playing matches too, they should have came up with

a bit of a game plan on the things they're going to work on.

If they're saying, "Hey, I need to really get my game where I can come forward."

Well, every practice match you need to result.

It doesn't matter.

Just keep going forward and keep going forward.

then you lose two sets.

But you keep coming forward.

You're going to get better at doing that in your game.

I think that's what he's trying to say is that, "What am I focusing on?

What am I trying to accomplish?

Every match will just be another match is what he should be focusing on."

I meant Ferreiro just not long ago, and he talks about the same thing.

Every match is just another match.

They do a lot of assessment, a lot of analysis now.

"Hey, you need to do this, you need to do that."

I think we'd be challenging without Perez if we're going to use him as an example, because

he has every tool and every shot in the bag.

You've got to try to minimize those and keep him focused on what is going to get the

end result.

Yeah, and he's in a spot now in his career where he's learning to be a professional.

Now he's the type that he didn't get there with his dad or his mom, and they have to figure

it out.

He's the type that has been managed and trained and focused and pointed in this direction.

So it's not as though they have to sit down and go, "Okay, what do they do next?"

But they know exactly what to do.

But for him still being young, he's had phenomenal success early.

He's got to figure out how to run a business as well as have fun.

So sometimes those expectations, and we see it a lot with some of the younger players,

especially some of the female players that will come in, they'll make a run and they'll

make some money and they'll start a business, and then the expectations get to them.

And they're not playing with the same freedom and enjoyment.

Is that a little bit of what he's having to remind himself of here?

Yeah, I think he just needs to, he's trying to just narrow down his focus so that he

can't get affected by the noise on the outside.

I'm sure if we have Murphy Jensen on the phone right now, he talked about the noise on the

outside because this is what gets affected by players.

But I think if we look at all the little things that he said to us, he said, "Long season."

Long season means a lot of meat and a lot of repair, a lot of rest, and you've just got

to be the fittest one.

And I'd say that's probably what happened in the final Monte Carlo is he had more legs

than the other guy to win 616-Love in the last two sets.

So that's what long season means.

If he's going to keep winning, he's also going to be fit enough to keep winning because

everyone's after him right now on the clay.

And if I was going to make a suggestion to him, he should be getting a lot of phone calls

from a Graffey Arnardale who's Cannon Parte, Mentor, blah blah blah, because he'll be the

best person to talk about, the long clay seasons, how hard it is, all the expectations.

I mean, you couldn't ask for a better advisor or a mentor right there.

Well, I think that's some of where the expectation comes from.

He even mentioned in a couple of his interviews about thinking, "If I win 11 Monte Carlo's or

14 French Opens, there is that comparison that everybody says, 'Oh, this is the great next

Spanish player, so clearly he's the next and the doll.'"

Well, he's just one of his first Monte Carlo.

expectations of winning not only more than one, but he's got to go out and do what Rafa did.

And that's got to be tough on the mindset.

Yeah, I mean, let's get real here.

Monte Carlo is not French open.

Number one.

Number two, Nadal, usually in the final would be either Federer, Djokovic, Murray,

or some of these other players.

His alcharez, to me, wasn't a real big challenging final.

No, no, no, no.

Just saying winning a tournament like this is an amazing thing for a fit and being.

For a guy like Alcharez.

He's got a long way to go.

It's just expected.

It's just another Sunday that he's supposed to win.

And I think that's what he's talking about here.

Yeah, he's trying to minimize the expectations and get real.

This was just one.

Let's keep pushing on the next one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think you're right.

He mentioned he said he felt sorry for Musetti.

Like the guy was out of gas.

You know, what do you do?

Now, Musetti, there's the question.

You have kind of, I don't want to say the tournament of your life, but the best tournament

of recent record.

And you're the guy that gets there.

You take out Sitsipas, who's kind of the bigger, faster, stronger version of him.

And he wins that match.

He takes out a couple of really good players.

Yeah.

And he's out of gas.

That can't make him feel good for the rest of the clases and being ready for Roll and

Garros, where he's going to get two or three rounds in.

He's going to be out of gas already.

Yeah.

Well, so same thing for the amateur of plays, just to give them some advice.

You're going into sectionals, you're going into finals.

Watch how much tennis you do all week.

I see some people get so nervous.

They feel like they've got to play a lot and hit a lot and hit a lot.

And then they've got nothing left and final.

So be careful about that.

I've heard a lot of people, USDA, they play a lot and do a lot and have a lot of lessons.

And they go, I'm going to be ready for my sectional and it's like, actually, you're already

ready.

You've got this.

So just balance it out.

So that's probably the best thing to hear here because I don't think on the weekends

we're expecting expectations.

Expecting expectations, is that a thing?

Yeah.

That we're looking at expectations.

Yeah, we want to come home and say, honey, I won.

It was great.

But it isn't as though the news media is following us around on the weekends for our tournaments.

But we have our own personal expectations.

But in this case, it's about preparation and about being ready, not necessarily playing

too much, but having enough in the tank.

So less of an alchorazic explanation and more of, hey, let's take a little bit from Musetti

here.

Yeah.

Well, let's, I'm not, so these USDA and these women and the men play on a weekly basis.

They're playing just as serious as alchorazic.

So I would say that weekend match or resectionals are a finals.

Man, there's people that, so hungry, it's great to see.

That's what this sport brings.

And then great thing to mention, right?

As I said to you, the start was the first thing that Rory McRoy got to watch before he went

to the final day.

And was watching Alchoraz win.

So it just tells you the cross sports as well as far as being very individual sports golf

tennis, how mental that is.

And so that was really cool to hear McRoy say, yeah, I watched him to get myself ready to

go play golf.

And then he turns around and wins, you know, the Grand Slam and golf, which was amazing.

Yeah.

Congratulations to Alcaraz.

Congratulations to Rory.

That's pretty exciting.

Justin, I appreciate your time again.

As always, we'll see you again next week.

This has been 10 minutes of tennis.

We will see you next week.

Thank you, Justin.

See you, mate.

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