Coaching in tennis is critical for a player’s development. The mental game is just as important as the physical.
From when a player starts beginner lessons to the time they retire, how the mind is fortified over years of wins, losses and training sessions is the foundation for players’ successes. Peyton Stearns, a former tennis player at UT and No. 44 in the Women’s Tennis Association tour, furnished her play style through the trials, tribulations and successes she has experienced.
Tom Downs, a former coach of Stearns, teaches both high-level WTA players and high-level junior players who aim to be on the WTA Tour. He previously trained star players such as Naomi Osaka, Samantha Stosur and Sofia Kenin. Downs worked with Stearns starting in 2015, when she was 14 years old, helping her win her first big event in the United States Tennis Association Midwest National 16s.
Through his time coaching Stearns, Downs knows the championship mentality she has.
“She’s got the character to be a champion,” Downs said. “(Peyton has) the X factor and the determination.”
Coach Roland Lutz, one of Stearns’ earliest coaches and owner of Riverside Athletic Club, a hub for tennis players in Cincinnati, similarly praised Stearns for having the X factor, an intangible quality that relates to one’s tenacity in performance.
“She did have that ‘it factor,’” Lutz said. “I thought when she was 16, she would be a successful player on the WTA Tour.”
Lutz’s prediction came true when Stearns picked up her first top-50 and top-20 wins in the 2023 French Open at the age of 21. After the 2023 season, in which she also reached the fourth round of the US Open, Stearns’ ranking jumped from No. 69 to No. 44.
Downs and Lutz both implemented a growth- and process-oriented mindset with Stearns. Although Stearns had a natural ability to play tennis and overcome roadblocks, the coaches played a role in emphasizing to Stearns that failure is an opportunity to learn.
According to a presentation by Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck, when coaches value improvement, passion and effort over natural talent, they inspire and promote development through their mentoring roles. Downs and Lutz helped to enact this exact methodology in Stearns.
“My mindset every time I step on court is to give it my all,” Stearns said. “Coach Lutz told me as a junior that after I play, if I can look into the mirror at the end of the day and tell myself I gave it my all, then that’s the most important thing.”
Stearns, who started the season strong by making it to the third round of the Australian Open before winning her second WTA title at the ATX Open, will now prepare for the second Grand Slam of the year, Roland Garros, in May.
