Florida Tennis

Palm Beach, Florida and London, England - March 26, 2009 - Sports psychologist Dr. John F. Murray will be conducting the 8th Annual Smart Tennis Sport Psychology Workshop in London, England on the weekend before Wimbledon. Attendees can choose one of two days, Friday June 19 or Saturday June 20, for the full day events held at the prestigious sponsor site, the Sutton Tennis Academy in Surrey. This event is also being sponsored by The Bulldog Club, a company providing the finest bed and breakfast in hand-picked private homes around London.

Dr. Murray will be joined again by London tennis coach Paul Barton of London Tennis and celebrity guests occasionally attend as well. Past attendees include spoon bender Uri Geller, top squash player in the history of India Ritwik Bhattacharya, English tennis pro Barry Cowan and American tennis pro Eric Taino.

Players receive a professional mental skills evaluation, feedback including a complete mental skills profile, one year of mental skills training follow-up, a personally signed copy of Dr. Murray’s book “Smart Tennis: How to Play and Win the Mental Game” (cover endorsed by Wimbledon champion Lindsay Davenport), entry into a mini-tournament at the end of the day, a group imagery session and much more.

While working with a sports psychologist for a year alone can cost over 10,000 Sterling, the total cost is about 5 Sterling per week for those who attend. In sum, the cost for the full program is 275 Sterling. London Tennis members receive a 25 Sterling discount and tennis pros who bring at least three students are allowed to attend for free. Cost to attend just for the workshop is 99 Sterling (without individual evaluation or one-year of follow-up mental coaching).

For more information or to sign up for one of these exclusive and limited places, please contact Dr. John F. Murray or Paul Barton at:

The 2009 Sony Ericsson Open once again lived up to its billing as the 5th best tournament of the year, and there were two surprise champions. Fans feasted on their usual blend of superb entertainment, tropical sunshine, and South Florida style. There is no better place in the world in March!

This month we examine some of the mental highs and lows as we stroll through the draws of the winners. Andy Murray, who’s been training extensively in South Florida, took the men’s title, cruising in from the #4 seed. The thrilling Brit only two weeks before had lost a heartbreaker in the finals of Indian Wells to Rafael Nadal. He won 11 of 12 matches in an unbelievable run! I enjoyed emailing back and forth with Andy’s mother and top British tennis coach, Judy Murray, who endorses my sports psychology workshops in London every year. Andy would rise to the top here with unheard of ball control and rapidly maturing mental skills. Over in the ladies side, 11th seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus surprised the world by shocking #2 seed Serena Williams in the finals after other top seeds Safina, Jankovic, and Dementieva fell by the wayside. I’m going to have to pull out my Russian dictionary to write this article! Now let’s now examine some of the mental skills on display.

Men’s Draw

Andy Murray received a bye in the first round before coming back to knock off Juan Monaco of Argentina 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round. He played erratically in the first set, but pulled from solid resilience in hanging in there, improving the quality of his play, and closing it out when he had to. In the third round, Murray bounced back again after starting 0-3 to Massu of Chile. The resilient control artist clawed and clawed back, and was also helped by an extremely rare four double faults in a row served up by the Chilean. In the fourth round, Murray had little trouble dispatching an angry 6’4’ Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-1, 6-0. Troicki cursed repeatedly in his native language and lost total composure, only hastening his annihilation. Next up was the mighty 7th seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain who had beaten Murray at the Australian Open earlier this year. With an eye for an eye on his mind, Murray refused to allow his confidence to dip from past results. He quickly destroyed the Spaniard 6-1, 6-2 whose body language was atrocious throughout the match. This set up a grudge semi-final match between Murray and 5th seed Juan Martin Del Potro, as both players had claimed gamesmanship in past matches. Murray focused much better on the battlefield and survived a 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 thriller. Del Potro later explained it away that he was tired after his match with Nadal. While this may be true, it’s never a good idea to make justifications and excuses after, as this rarely promotes future mental toughness. In the finals, Murray equaled fellow UK national Tim Henman’s 11 titles by rolling over Djokovic 6-2, 7-5. Amazing fitness and finesse were the order of the day as Murray played to start, then refused to be discouraged after down a break in the second. I emailed Judy Murray to send her and her son a big congrats and she replied to me that “we Murray’s need to stick together.” While everyone is saying that Andy can be the next Wimbledon champion, I have a warning. I know he can do it, but don’t fall for the hype Andy. You don’t need that kind of pressure. Just keep playing great tennis and your career will take care of itself!

Women’s Draw