In 2021, Tennis Acumen interviewed American Evan King at the Champaign Challenger tournament. Here is a part of that conversation:
Tennis Acumen: You were obviously not 100 percent physically yesterday. How do you push through?
Evan King: If you decide to start a match, you finish the match. I guess that's my code of honor, unless something is actually broken. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. As a professional, maybe I withdrew from one match. As you said, yesterday, I did not have my 100 percent.
Tennis Acumen: You know, I won't get into details on the injury itself. I'm just looking at the mindset and the spirit behind it. You were down a break early in the second set. Time to change ends, and you went off in the corner of the court and just sat on a stool. What was your thought process or what was going through your head?
Evan King: I was just trying to clear my mind and find some sort of peace because I was also frustrated that I was down a set and a break. Very frustrated. I needed to kind of be to myself. Find some peace. Try to get something out of the match. Whether it's a win, whether it's feeling good, whether it's executing certain things, just simplifying the game in my mind. I was taking it down to just a couple of shots I felt like I could execute extremely well. It was all mental, all regrouping and focusing in and really locking in for that moment.
Tennis Acumen: To be honest, Evan, it was agonizing watching the match because I could tell your mind wanted to do things and your body was saying: “Please stop. Please let me go.”
Evan King: It's a very frustrating part of tennis in general, but it's also interesting because I do focus on doubles now. My career is based off of doubles. It's making sure I stay ready for that as well. Win or lose on Tuesday, I knew I had to compete on Wednesday. Even working out for both of them is different. You use different skills when you're practicing for doubles and training for doubles rather than singles. There is playing and there is recovering. Played a match two days ago. In the second set, it got pretty physical. (King defeated Ruan Roelofse in a 24-point 2nd set tiebreak.) He was going through it too, though, because you can't say it was just me. I know my opponent was also feeling it physically as well. We all have issues we're going through, so we just try to compete and get through it.
Tennis Acumen: It was impressive, Evan.
Evan King: I appreciate that.
More of this exclusive interview is available at Tennis Acumen. Go to the interviews category, shown on the upper right hand side of the screen.
Tags: @EvanKingChicago
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