The Match That Changed How I Compete
We were playing our rivals, the University of St Thomas, in a match to win the conference championship. St. Ben’s had not beaten St. Thomas in over a decade – the odds were stacked against us. I was the last one left playing, and the score of the overall match was 4-4, so I needed to win my match for St Ben’s to beat St. Thomas.
I was going on hour 3 of playing singles and I was in a final tiebreaker to decide the match. Every point mattered – I could not afford to put forward less than my best tennis in this moment. It was the most nervous I had ever been during a tennis match. I was only a sophomore in college.
My legs were exhausted, my elbow ached, and I was dripping in sweat. All eyes were on me, and everyone was counting on me. I had to win. But before I served for match point, I looked over at my team. I could see in their eyes that they didn’t care if I won. They simply wanted to know that I gave everything I had for them. I won that point and won the match.
But my satisfaction wasn’t in winning for myself – it was knowing that my team trusted me and believed in me because they knew I left everything on the court.
What Tennis Demands of You
Playing competitive tennis takes grit, determination, perseverance, independence, endurance, and most importantly, heart. When you play singles, you are the only one on the court — there is no team to rely on, and you can only receive coaching for specific, brief periods of time.
At the end of the day, it is up to you to pick the right strategy and to execute it successfully.
A match can last over three hours — three hours of you alone with your thoughts, fighting off mental and physical fatigue, all while trying to execute the best possible strategy to come away victorious. And in collegiate tennis, you often have your team relying on you to pull out a win so they can beat a rival or advance to the NCAA tournament.
No pressure, though.
From the Court to the Courtroom
It might seem silly, but these elements of tennis are also present in the practice of law.
A lot of the time it is you, alone in your office with your thoughts, researching and writing for hours, or questioning witnesses in a courtroom for days, fighting off mental and physical fatigue. You may receive advice from a mentor or a colleague, but at the end of the day it is up to you to pick the right strategy and execute it successfully.
A case can last months or even years, but being a lawyer requires an attitude that you won’t ever give up and won’t ever back down — especially when your client is relying on you to help them avoid a term of imprisonment, or to get the compensation they need to rebuild their life. But again, no pressure.
Adjusting in Real Time
Tennis also teaches you to read what’s in front of you and adjust in real time. You observe an opponent’s patterns, notice when their forehand breaks down under pressure, and change your game plan between points — not after the match is over. Criminal defense and personal injury work reward that same instinct.
Cross-examining a witness, responding to a surprise ruling, or recognizing when an insurance adjuster is bluffing all take the same split-second read-and-adjust that used to happen across a net.
Losing, Learning, and Controlling What You Can
And of course, there are failures. In tennis, there are times when it is simply not your day — your body is fatigued, your serve isn’t going in, or your strategy is falling short. The same is true in the law: your objections are overruled, the law isn’t on your side, or your strategy falls short.
This is inevitable.
But in both tennis and the law, the key is to focus on what you can control, not what you can’t. You can’t control your opponent’s game style, their talents, or their emotions. You can’t control the decisions of a judge, the thoughts of a jury, or the motivations of a prosecutor or an insurance company.
But you can control your own game, your own case. You can control how much heart you put into each match, into each trial. And when it comes down to it, you will never regret losing when you know you gave everything you had, despite influences outside your control. Your team, or your client, will never fault you for that.
Why Tennis and Law Both Require Heart
So, at first glance, it may seem impossible for the sport of tennis and the practice of law to have anything in common. But both are competitive. Both demand everything you’ve got. And for the clients who need someone in their corner who won’t back down — whether they’re up against the state or an insurance company — both, most importantly, require heart.