A Quick Mental Prescription And Monica Puig Moves Ahead

Written by: Staff on 6th March 2013

A Quick Mental Prescription And Monica Puig Moves Ahead

epa03522099 Monica Puig of Puerto Rico returns during her second round match against Angelique Kerber of Germany at the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, 02 January 2013. EPA/DAVE HUNT AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

Monica Puig just hired sport psychologist John Murray and in just two days, she scored her first win over a top 10 player when she bested Andrea Petkovic 7-6 (2), 6-3 to qualify for the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, the first premier level WTA event she has qualified for.

“I spoke to him this morning and we worked on not overlooking things and staying within myself,” Puig told Daily Tennis. “We literally started yesterday and I can already see the difference. When she started coming back, I was just really relaxed: if she wins the next point it’s OK, and if I do, great. Obviously I want to win every point, but I have to take it easy.”

The 19-year-old finished 2012 very strong, winning back-to-back ITF titles. She then began 2013 in similar fashion, qualifying for Brisbane and nearly knocking off then No, 5 Angelique Kerber before she went down in a 9-7 in the third set tiebreaker.

But she was upset with her inability to close out that match and felt like she wasn’t making enough progress. So she and her coach, Belgian Alain De Vos, began to look for someone who could aid her mental game. She called Murray, who recently signed a deal with the Evert Academy and he gave her a few key tips that helped her.

“Even when I was ahead I never let my guard down and I focused on my game plan and didn’t go away from what my team and I discussed before the match,” she said. “I maintained a positive and relaxed attitude.

Puig reached No. 2 in the ITF junior rankings and in 2011, she reached the final of both the Australian Open and Roland Garros girls’ events. She won the silver medal at the Pan-American Games by defeating Christina McHale of the US to advance to the gold medal round where she lost to Irina Falconi.

Last month, after losing in the Memphis qualifying, she headed to Las Vegas to train with Adidas Player Development, where she got to meet Steffi Graf and played Petkovic twice in practice, where she lost.

She turned that around on Tuesday in the desert, even though the Kerber loss admittedly came into her head.

“I thought she would play loose points and she didn’t, so I was happy with what I was doing because I stayed aggressive,” she said. “You can’t give away free points. You have to go with the intention of making your opponent earn every single point.”

When she was 15, Puig went to the US branch of the Justine Henin Tennis Academy , met Vos and a few months later they left the academy together. The aggressive baseliner has come a long way since then and is sure to crack the top 100 when the next set of a rankings come out.

A native of Puerto Rico who grew up in Miami, this is the second year that she received a wild card into Indian Wells. Her uncle had done his research and found out that a former standout player from Puerto Rico, Charlie Pasarell, had been helping run Indian Wells for years. She emailed him and asked for a wild card into qualifying and he got right back to her and said yeas.

Pasarell just stepped aside after last year’s tournament but is coming out for this year’s tournament. Last year, Puig fell in the second round of qualifying to Sorana Cirstea. This year Pasarell will see that she’s progressed.

“It’s been very bumpy,” she said. “You hit the wall and then you make some changes, small ones, but they have made a big difference.

I was stressing in beginning of my pro career trying to get big breakthrough and I forced a little too much too, but now I’m letting myself develop.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Andrea Petkovic, Angelique Kerber, BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, John Murray, Monica Puig, Sports, tennis and psychology, Tennis News, Wta