Earlier this year I saw a change in myself. I was pretty emotional in Munich, Geneva and Roland Garros. I didn’t control myself as much as I wanted and it would even happen in practice.
Whether I didn’t do something that I worked on, made some mistakes, or the player played over the net really well, things just didn’t go on my way. I was aware of what happened, but there was an overwhelming feeling that I could no longer fight. I would panic and there was nothing that I could do about it.
Wimbledon was the most eye-opening moment, when I really didn’t know what the hell was going on. I played Lloyd Harris in the first round and got into a fight with everyone on the field, although some people, like my team, were there to help me. I just wasn’t myself at all.
It is clear that your mood on the field has a lot to do with playing good and winning points, which I was not. If I had doubled and someone started clapping in the crowd, it really bothered me. I would always get so irritated and even with the referee’s decisions.
Nothing that happened to me was crazy. In a typical match I would usually have said: “Okay, it’s what it is.” But at that moment it became a lot to deal with my thoughts and I tried to fight to let it all go my way. At some point it is as if the devil is in you and you realize that he is there, but it just became too difficult to deal with.
There was so much anger and frustration – I would not win that battle. After losing the competition in four sets, I shared a personal post with my fans on social media.
“If you had told me as a child that one day I would play at Wimbledon, but would not enjoy a single point, I would never have believed you,” I wrote. “But unfortunately that is exactly what happened.”
View this message on Instagram
A message shared by Zizou Bergs (@zizoubergs)
I’m quite an open book. I don’t mind discussing how I feel and I think it’s important to talk about it sometimes because being open about your problems can help.
So much of us – in all lines of work, have experienced that and I don’t think it’s something to be ashamed of. If it gets difficult, I think it’s good to talk about it and for me it is good to make the players and the fans aware of the players, because they think it is normal to be consistent on your best and nothing less.
Whether it is Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Zizou Berg is ranked in 50th place, or the world no. 200, tennis players are not a super man. We also have to deal with things that are going on in our lives. Everyone has normal things that are going on, but we are expected to perform and perform at our best, which is not always easy.
As a player I sometimes make this mistake sometimes. It is easy as a fan to take a matter of course to consider what the best players in the world can produce. You wonder why someone is not playing well and the truth is that they might just have a bad day.
This was my first full season on the head -Ttour and I traveled a lot. I lost myself a bit this year since my previous coach and I was a bit of a mismatch. We tried to sort things out and in that process I forgot who Zizou is like a tennis player. By distance myself from my values ​​as a tennis player, I was much more panicked because I could not enjoy the field.
I was scared and stressed about playing big and with a bit of a show together with the crowd. With this problem it slowly became too much to tackle.
If a football player has a bad day, they can hide behind another football player. In tennis it is all you are on the field and if all goes well, you are on top of the world. If that is not the case, you will be exposed, and that is not always easy to deal with.
I really enjoy what I do, but performing is something else. If you go outside, you really have to play at a high level and always do it, and that is not as easy as it seems.
The good thing is that I am aware of this and have worked to improve. I have been working with a sports psychologist since I was 16 years old, but the moment it was all about becoming a better tennis player and to use how I felt certain things on and next to the field to perform my game at a higher level. Since 2020 I travel with a psychologist named Gert-Jan De Muynck 10 weeks a year and we worked hard on this.
Outside the field, and even when I’m in tournaments, I feel good in my skin. I could walk through the location, do some activities in the field or talk to other players or coaches and I feel completely good. That is already positive.
After Wimbledon my girlfriend and I went on vacation to Ibiza to decompry. When I am on vacation, it always takes three days to really disconnect, and then I have a few days where I could really relax. But after the journey, when I hit the courts again, I felt completely different.
I was very relaxed and clear how more days you are back on the field, the more competitive you become. You really want it so badly – because I am a man who really wants success – and maybe that is a bit the tricky side of it. You may want it too much, and if it doesn’t go your way, you wonder why it doesn’t work.
My coach in the juniors taught me that the faster you want to go, the more time you will lose. It’s really about your way of thinking. If it won’t be here today, it might come tomorrow. If it’s not tomorrow, it might be the day, week, month or the following year. In the end it is the most important thing that you apply the work with the right intentions and then you just have to trust where it falls.
As I wrote in my message after Wimbledon, I love this sport and the whole atmosphere around it. I am excited to have learned from this experience and will continue to give everyone my very best.
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