"Five minutes before entering the central office, I suddenly felt really bad, extremely nervous. I started to cry. I even had to go throw up a bit.” Stan Wawrinka discussing his emotions before walking on the court for the 2016 US Open final. He won the match and the title.
“You know, half an hour before the match I didn’t even want to step on the court, because I just really felt really bad, and I had to, like, lock myself in the physio room and I had to talk to my psychologist. I was actually crying.” Barbora Krejcikova discussing how she felt before her 4th round match at the French Open in 2021. She won the match as well as the singles and doubles title later that week.
“Have no fear” or “don’t be nervous” or any of that junk is the biggest bunch of bologna on the planet. Things like fear, stress, and nerves never go away. There will never be a match where a player feels absolutely nothing but calmness before stepping onto the court. If that happens to them, they probably don’t care enough.
Champions like Wawrinka and Krejcikova are full of all sorts of miserable emotions during big moments. They’ve just learned how to compete with them.