By Eli Buenaventura
For Variety

As the Coconut Tennis Classic unfolds next weekend ushering in the new season, you may want to improve your tournament results. Here are 10 tips that successful players have followed for years. Hopefully, they will help you achieve your goals.
1. Accept your opponents for what they are. You may not like some players such as lobbers, strong servers and dinkers. But if you can’t avoid them, prepare yourself for their styles. Don’t get upset when you run to retrieve a lob. Play patiently against a dinker and focus on returning strong serves. In other words, accept them for what they are and you will be better off in your next meeting on the court.
2. Deal with court cheaters properly. Because the thrill of winning is second to none, players sometimes cheat to win the game. When you face this kind of player, particularly in a club tournament, call a lineman right away. The earlier you alert the tournament committee, the better it will be for your game. Don’t give in to the system of “an eye for an eye” by cheating the first time, because it is not in your character. You may play worse and proceed to lose faster. Also, if you know your opponent has history of cheating, get ready for it as well.
3. It is the ball and not your opponent. Whenever you are inside the court and playing, keep an eye always on the ball. Forget, however, seeing it leave your racket’s strings. The ball leaves the strings 4 milliseconds. The eye can’t afford to record a four milliseconds event. It is not your opponent but the ball that you have to pay attention to. Look for it every time and you will hit a lot of shots on the sweet spot of your racket. Your opponent is too big an object to escape from your vision.
4. Don’t flim flam your decision. A lot of miss hits in tennis are not because players don’t keep an eye on the ball. But it is the sudden change of plan milliseconds before the ball hits the strings. If you make up your mind to hit down the line, don’t mess up with your mind. If you decide to keep your head steady like Roger Federer until the ball leaves your racket, don’t change your disposition.
5. Focus on your game and not on your ego. Like in other sports, tennis is also plagued with ego trippers. If your opponent passes you, don’t let your ego adrenalin take over your concentration. Don’t get back to him and try to get even. You will only suffer more and eventually lose the game. Focus on your game plan and wait for an opening to hit a clean shot.
6. Practice your shots as you want them executed in the game. Practice makes perfect as the adage goes. But if you are doing it incorrectly, it may be killing your game rather than improving it. Make sure you practice your game that simulates to actual match play. Players like to rally from the baseline, but are very lazy running a drop shot or short ball. Ask your hitting partner to hit the shots with which you have greatest difficulty in actual match.
7.Nourish your body with proper food. Study shows that you burn 600 calories in playing a set. The burning will be more, as the set takes longer. Make sure you put in a lot of carbohydrates and fruits into your body for optimum performance. According to former Wimbledon champion, Stan Smith, you have to load your body with the energy food 2 hours before the match. Hydrate your body too, 30 minutes before starting time.
8. Keep a healthy habit. You need to concentrate when playing a match. You can ‘t do this if you lack sleep. An eight-hour sleep is good enough to have our body fully rested. Keep this good sleeping practice and you will play much better most of the time.
9. Warm up your body. It is very tough for the body to perform the way our mind wants it if it is not fully warmed. Do some skipping rope or run three laps around the court. After that when blood starts rushing in, do some stretching. You will not only be able to maximize your performance, but it will also prevent you from getting injured during the match.
10. Have a positive attitude. If you lose your match, be positive about it. Learn from it and avoid committing the same mistakes next time you are on the court. Pretend that tennis is like business. It is a journey not a destination. Your loss must only stimulate your appetite to strive more.