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Don’t Break Your Racquet

by TN

I wanted to create a humorous video where I broke one of my old racquets and gave the advice “Don’t Break Your Racquet”, but something went wrong…

There are many ways a racquet can break. Mishits on the frame, poor stringing, or – the most visual and aggressive one – when you smash it in frustration. My response to this is “Don’t break your racquet”, but when I wanted to illustrate this through a video by breaking one of my own racquets, I forgot to press record on the camera. So this is what I am left with.

Some players love smashing racquets while Rafa thinks it is a clear sign of not being in control of your emotions. He has never broken a racquet while Federer used to smash racquets in his younger years and his latest visual racquet destruction happened in Miami 2009 against Djokovic.

Other frequent racquet smashers include Zverev, Kyrgios, Paire and a bunch of others. Even Djokovic can be seen breaking racquets from time to time.

Why do you break a racquet?


Why do you break a racquet? Well, it is a way to let out built-up frustrations from the match. You can of course deal with them in other ways as most players don’t break racquets during a match no matter how frustrating it gets.

So. Don’t break a racquet. Find other ways to deal with your anger. Scream, count to ten, do pushups, take a toilet break (if allowed), there are simply many ideas on how to control your anger.

I have thrown a couple of racquets and once smashed one. No, I am not proud. I usually lose it due to low sugar or dehydration coupled with my frustration. But these days I don’t do that anymore. I respect myself and the racquet too much for that kind of behavior. Which I guess is easier to do when you are not playing for a huge sum of money.

Have you ever broken a racquet? How did it make you feel? Please comment below.

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3 comments

António January 26, 2020 - 18:26 - 18:26

Keep that broken bat in your bag, and use it if you feel the need to crack your racquet

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Brad January 26, 2020 - 19:51 - 19:51

I used to crack a raquet when I was younger, but stopped when I started to do basic customization of my rackets. I was spending more money and enjoyed the experience of finding “my racket” for my game. I enjoy tennisnerd a lot and it helped me find “my racket”.

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TennisLion January 27, 2020 - 20:57 - 20:57

When I was a kid an older player of about 15 years of age smashed his racket after playing badly, and it was instantly obvious to me then that he was a completely spoilt imbecile with no respect for himself, his opponent, his equipment, his environment, or the privilege he had being able to play and own expensive equipment which millions of kids around the world are denied. The fact that grown ‘men’ like Kyrios still behave like that is, as Rafa points out, a detriment on his upbringing, maturity and self discipline; it should have been nipped-in-the-bud when he was a child. Failure to realise this will result in never becoming an adult.

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