Even the biggest tennis stars feel nervous before the first round matches at Wimbledon and other Grand Slams

By HOWARD FENDRICH

LONDON (AP) Carlos Alcaraz has already won three Grand Slam titles, including Wimbledon a year agoand yet after his opening win at this year's event he said he was nervous before stepping onto Centre Court, despite playing against a player who had never played at a major tournament before.

Coco GauffThe reigning US Open champion and runner-up at Roland Garros two years ago said after her victory in the same stadium that while she has played on many big courts, every time she plays on that particular patch of grass she feels more nervous while playing tennis, even more nervous than during a Grand Slam final.

Why would such successful athletes still get nervous? Especially in the first round, which was supposed to end on Tuesday at the All England Cluband in what should theoretically be their easiest matches in what they hope will be a two-week stay in the bracket? It turns out that tennis players, almost unanimously, maintain that the first matches at any of their sport’s four most prestigious events—the Australian Open in January, the French Open in May, Wimbledon in late June or early July, and the US Open in August—give them cause for concern, regardless of how often they’ve won by that stage.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, because I think everyone is. There's a lot of pressure, especially when you're playing well and you already know you can make this step; people expect it to happen again and again, said Iga Swiatek, who just won her fifth major at the French Open and is seeded No. 1 at Wimbledon. “You need that stress to get to the right level of motivation and readiness.

However, that stress diminishes over the course of the tournament, which seems illogical given that opponents should be getting stronger and stronger and the stakes are getting higher as time goes on.

I always feel a lot more nervous in the first round of Slams, just because I want to do well, and the first round is the first round, so you almost feel like the tournament hasn't even started and if you lose, you're out, four-time major champion Naomi Osaka said. That's, for me, how I feel. Growing up, the Slams were the tournaments I watched the most on TV. I just want to stay here as long as I can.

The sense that these events mean more than others has only grown stronger in recent years.

Wimbledon and the other majors are without a doubt the most attention in the sport, from TV channels as well as viewers, sponsors and spectators. Players are well aware of this and some, like Novak Djokovic, make it clear that they know that collecting those particular trophies makes all the difference.

He has 24. And people looking for their first often feel the same way.

Every match you want to win. But Grand Slams can change your life, your legacy. That’s where it really counts, said Frances Tiafoe, the 29th seed at Wimbledon who lost the first two sets to Matteo Arnaldi on Monday before rallied to win. The first round is always tough, whether you’re feeling good. Or not. Or in between. You just want to get through that first round and then you settle in.

Fifth-seeded Jessica Pegula has reached the quarterfinals of six major tournaments, including Wimbledon in 2023. She had a much easier time than Tiafoe in the first round, needing just 49 minutes to beat Ashlyn Krueger 6-2, 6-0 on Tuesday.

But Pegula wasn't looking forward to that match. Not at all.

First rounds suck. There’s a lot of anxiety. There’s that buildup. Everyone wants to win a Grand Slam. You think, This is it. You want to prepare as best as you can. There’s more media. And you don’t have a baseline of where everything is. How the courts are actually playing. All those little things are part of it. It’s hectic, Pegula said. Once the first match is over, everyone takes a deep breath and you’re like, OK, this is good. You know what to expect. But in the first round, you don’t have that. And you don’t want to go home on the first day.

What higher ranked players often think is that not only do they hope to make it to the first round, but everyone else expects them to do the same.

It essentially comes down to this: What will the world think if I lose this match?

When there’s not a lot of expectation on you, no one really thinks twice about losing in the first round, said Taylor Fritz, the No. 13 seed. “When you go out in the first round, you think it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened. It’s a weird thing. It comes and goes. I’ve had times when I was so nervous for the first round, and then I’ve had times when I wasn’t nervous at all. When you feel confident, once you get on the court, when you feel good for the first couple of games, it all goes away. But when you start out a little tight and things don’t go your way, it’s not great.

Alcaraz tries to shake off his nerves by trying to shut down, he said, and not focus too much on the task at hand in the hours leading up to a match. The day before he faced and defeated 269th-seeded qualifier Mark Lajal of Estonia at Wimbledon, Alcaraz played a round of golf to try to relax.

It's something that helps me a lot to take my mind off things a little bit, to not think about the match the day before, Alcaraz said. Helps me a lot to stay calm.

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Howard Fendrich has been the AP tennis reporter since 2002. Here are his stories: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis