"Hold on, I need to fix my hair, I need to adjust my shorts," Tsonga explains Nadal's routine

le 13/06/2025 à 18h01

1 min to read

In the podcast created by Kevin Ferreira, Tsonga discussed the topic of mental preparation in tennis. To illustrate his point, the Frenchman used the example of the legendary Rafael Nadal, whose routine is widely known:

"If I tell you not to think about an elephant, the first thing that comes to your mind is an elephant. The brain is wired to think constantly. If tomorrow you dwell on the point you missed, the only way to stop thinking about it is to force yourself to focus on something else. It could be telling yourself: 'Hold on, I need to fix my hair, I need to adjust my shorts'—because we were talking about Rafael Nadal and his habits.

The guy is smart; if it didn’t serve a purpose, he would’ve stopped long ago. For him, it’s his routine, his perfect match is when his routine is complete. When he does it with confidence, he forgets what happened before. He’s ready to play the next point, and that’s something I understood too late."

The Spaniard is a player Tsonga knows well, having faced him 14 times on the tour, with a record of 4 wins and 10 losses.

Dernière modification le 13/06/2025 à 18h03

Tsonga Jo-Wilfried

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Nadal Rafael

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It appeared to me Nadal was a little OCD. He had to go through those routines before every serve. And the water bottles. Each having to be placed perfectly in line and facing exactly toward the court. To Nadal's credit, he was able to focus his OCD in a positive direction instead of letting it become a burden and distraction to his game mindset.

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Shorts? You meant undie. lol

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Or jock strap ...

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"Hold on, I need to fix my hair, I need to adjust my shorts," Tsonga explains Nadal's routine

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Nov 30/25

What a finish this is.. I believe King has used his boost for today. Skelp is closing strong. Two wins and he claims 1st if I lose my last prediction.

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Gonna be difficult with only 2 pointers to choose from.

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I propose the following changes to the rules:

1...a walķover will not be a loss. We have no control of player's health. If he or she is entered in a contest we expect them to play.

2...an incomplete match is not a loss. If a player forfeits we pick another match if there are more to choose.

3...this also applies if TT cancels a match. TT will not take hours to decide an outcome.

How about leavin...

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It's a shame that so many matches are being canceled. TT ,you are destroying your game ,and thereby killing your app. I don't know how many matches others have had canceled , but I'm at 3 and it's only thursday.

As a long time player and lover of this game , I don't know how much of this I can tolerate. For example I waited hours last night for you to confirm my win and post my points. Every ot...

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