Occupational burnout is a kind of psychological stress which is characterized by exhaustion, lack of motivation, frustration, etc and as a result, a person cannot have complete satisfaction in what he does. In tennis, a number of players have suffered from burnout which have eventually caused a huge dip in their form, or on some occasions, an end to their playing careers. So here’s a list of five players who have suffered or may be suffering from burnout.
#5. Nick Kyrgios
The young Australian came into the limelight after stunning the mighty Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of the 2014 Wimbledon Championships to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final. This also made him the first male player to reach the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon on his debut since Germany’s Florian Mayer in 2004. Ranked 144th in the world during Wimbledon, he moved up to 66th in the world following the tournament.Following the Wimbledon, Kyrgios exited the US Open in the third round and the Malaysian Open in the opening round before deciding to skip the remainder of the tour citing burnout as his primary reason.
He reached a second Grand Slam quarter-final at the 2015 Australian Open and was soon in the top 30 of the ATP rankings before reaching a career-high ranking of 13th in 2016. Despite touted to be a future Grand Slam champion by many and a future World No.1 by some, Kyrgios has put in some promising performances but is yet to fulfill his full potential. Maybe the pressure of expectation is burning him out but will he overcome it or will it turn out to be a career-ending burn out? Only time can tell.
#4. David Ferrer
The Spaniard first came into the limelight in 2003 when he beat Andre Agassi in the opening round of the Rome Masters and rose to fame by the end of 2007 when he beat the likes of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in the round-robin of the World Tour Finals (then known as the Tennis Masters Cup) and went on to reach the final of the tournament which helped him enter the Top 5 of the ATP rankings.
However, during a period between the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2010, Ferrer had a dip in form but then came back strongly and from 2011-2015, he put in some thrilling performances that included reaching his first Grand Slam final at the 2013 French Open and reaching a career-best ranking of World No.3.However, Ferrer has had a lot of struggles with his form this year. After reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, Ferrer had a disastrous second round exit at the Miami Open which was followed by consecutive third round exits at Madrid and Rome.
After exiting the French Open in the fourth round, Ferrer had a disastrous grass-court season which was followed by a disappointing second round exit at the Rio Olympics. Ferrer’s woes continued as he lost in the opening round of the Cincinnati Masters before exiting the US Open in the third round.
Following the US Open, he has had mostly below-par performances which led him fall down to 21st in the rankings, his lowest ranking since July 2009. An occupational burnout may be the reason of Ferrer’s lack of form recently. Age may also be a factor as he’s already 34.
#3. Bjorn Borg
During 1974, a teenager from Stockholm who was just a week shy of his 18th birthday took the world by storm by becoming the youngest ever champion of the Italian Open. A couple of weeks later, this youngster won the French Open after coming back from a 2-set deficit to win the final.
This player was Bjorn Borg. Borg soon began to establish himself as one of the best players of his era and that too, at a very young age. By the time he was 25, he had already won 11 Grand Slams that included six French Open titles and five consecutive Wimbledon titles.
Considered to be one of the greatest players to have ever set foot on a tennis court, Borg has an overall win percentage of 82.74% which is the second highest win rate of the Open Era.
Tennis great Ilie Nastase once said of Borg, “We're playing tennis, and he's playing something else". Borg’s rising stardom helped elevate the popularity of tennis during the 1970s which is one of the reasons why it has a huge fan following these days.
However, the continuous fame he was receiving and the constant pressure of expectation eventually took its toll on him as it caused burnout which in turn, gave impetus to his premature retirement from tennis, aged only 26. Truly, a great career cut short by burnout.
#2. Rafael Nadal
The King of Clay came to international prominence through his near invincible performances in clay court for nearly a decade before having injury struggles in mid-2014. In his prime, Nadal was one of the most dangerous players on tour and formed a fierce rivalry with the great Roger Federer with the duo being a part of many great matches including the 2008 Wimbledon final which has been considered by many experts and analysts to be the greatest tennis match ever.However, in the past couple of years, Nadal hasn’t been the same player he was during the late 2000s, and his continuous injury struggles justify the fact that he has all but lost his killer instinct.
After having issues with his wrist till the clay-court season of the ATP World Tour, Nadal put in a promising performance at the Rio Olympics where he came fourth. However, following the tournament, Nadal’s lack of form continued as he failed to live up to expectations in the tournaments that followed before announcing that he will take no further part in 2016 due to the same wrist injury, a couple of months after Federer announced he won’t be playing any further in 2016.Nadal has previously had problems with his wrist but he has not taken as many long breaks before, as he has this year. Injury cannot be the only reason why he is doing so. Being regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all-time, Nadal has always had to deal with the pressure of expectation and this time it may have led to a burnout. However, Rafa is known to come back strong from such setbacks and any tennis fanatic would want to see him at his inevitable best in 2017.
#1. Novak Djokovic
The Serb has undoubtedly been the best tennis player in the world in the past four-five years with many critics and past players opining that Djokovic is the greatest tennis player of all-time. After winning his first Grand Slam at the 2008 Australian Open, Djokovic made 2011 his own as he won three of the four majors and ended the year ranked World No.1.
He went on to hold that position for a total of 223 weeks which is the fifth highest for a male player at the top of the ATP rankings behind Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Ivan Lendl, and Jimmy Connors.
So far, Djokovic has won a total of 12 Grand Slam Titles that include a record six Australian Open Titles, a French Open Title, three Wimbledon Titles, and two US Open Titles.Djokovic began 2016 brilliantly by winning a record sixth Australian Open Title which was followed by wins at Indian Wells, Miami, and Madrid before winning his maiden French Open Title and in the process, completing a Career-Slam.
However, following this achievement, Djokovic’s form suffered a dip as he was knocked out in the third round of Wimbledon and although he rebounded well by winning the Rogers Cup, he was then knocked out in the opening round of the Rio Olympics.
Djokovic then came back well by reaching the final of the US Open and even though his performances were decent in the tournaments that followed, he was looking patchy. After a quarter-final defeat to Marin Cilic which was incidentally his first loss to the Croat, Nole lost the World No.1 ranking to Andy Murray and in order to clinch it back, he would have to win the ATP World Tour Finals. However, he lost to Murray in the final and will end the year as World No.2.The Serb has not been the same player this year as he used to be during the past few, and as the case might be with several top players, the pressure of expectation coupled with the immense fame might lead to Djokovic burning out but having seen Djokovic refusing to give up, we can all hope to see the Serb back to his very best in 2017.
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