Swiss-Miss Understood or Psychological Warfare

Planting a Mental Time Bomb

by Dr. Roland A. Carlstedt

Martina Hingis has an incredible talent for putting her foot in her mouth. Throughout her career she has caused a furor with flippant comments, whether challenging a player's sexuality (Mauresmo), making fun of the physiques of bigger players (Davenport), or most recently when suggesting that the Williams sisters were at an advantage because they are "black." Her remarks are usually quite simplistic, devoid of substance and difficult to support, leading Serena to once retort, "What can one expect from a person who never completed high school."

Martina's flippant remarks have gotten her into trouble on numerous occasions

Regarding her most recent verbal barrage, it is unfortunate that she again exposed herself by offering up a pseudo-intellectual analysis of a very complex issue. How could she possibly know what it's like to be black in America? As many famous African-American celebrities can attest, being a celebrity does not mean a cab is going to stop for you in New York City at night, or anytime for that matter. Riches alone cannot insulate a person of color from the constant scrutiny and even insults of racists.

Hingis should ask her mother, a Czech immigrant to Switzerland, what it's like to be a non-Swiss born person in Switzerland. I lived there, and even as a white American experienced intolerance and inequities in Martina's country. As the cliché goes, Martina, "should walk a mile in my (Serena and Venus') shoes." She needs some sensitivity training as she later blushingly intimated in a press conference in which she was confronted with her stark and embarrassing opinions on an issue she knows nothing about.

Racism can be found in all sectors of society including the professional tennis tours. In mentioning that the William's sisters are above critique, or obtain endorsements because they are black, players in addition to Hingis who were quoted in the recent TIME magazine cover story are doing neither themselves, the Williams family, or women's tennis much good. Their critique reflects their own jealousies and pettiness. Rather than focusing on the results of the long journey the Williams sisters have endured to get to the top, players should stop and reflect for a moment and realize how difficult it is for an African-American to get to the top in tennis, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary. And of course the sisters are the darlings of Madison Avenue, why not? Why shouldn't they be marketed as role models to a perennially underserved population.

Serena and Venus have been under attack before but so far they have been able to deflect the barbs on their way to victories

In the end, tennis is a dog-eat-dog world, where winning is the bottom line. Consequently, as a Psychologist, when reading or hearing statements such as Hingis' and others, I suspect the urge to hit a verbal passing shot is motivated more by a desire to penetrate the psyche of an opponent (in this case the Williams sisters) than merely let off steam and show the world what a "deep thinker" one is. Certainly one does not want to be portrayed as a racist. That would backfire big time and sabotage the goal of such attacks.

Messages to other players via the media or whomever are often subconsciously motivated and designed to disrupt an opponent's comfort zone off the court and focus on the court. Critique that is publicly directed at an opponent is in all actuality nothing more than a subtle and oftentimes effective means of psychological warfare. Verbal onslaughts of the Hingis kind are intended to penetrate and lodge in an opponent's psyche and then go off like a time bomb when one least expects it, for example, at breakpoint in the final set.

These types of messages are designed to make matches personal. You've probably played someone you really dislike. Instead of focusing on your game you end up focusing on your opponent, those mannerisms you dislike, perhaps even something they once said about you. The next thing you know you've lost your concentration and you're toast.

Insensitive remark or psychological warfare, either way it may provide her with the edge she needs

Hingis is shrewd and calculating. She has to be to beat the big girls. She needs to resort to psycho-tricks of all sorts including covert ones she may not even realize. In planting disruptive thoughts in the Williams sisters' minds she may be on her way to a victory without even knowing it.

However, there is a defense against such clandestine psychological tactics, a psychological mechanism that is already built into most elite athletes, namely the ability to repress aversive or intrusive thoughts especially at "crunch" time.

My research shows that the best athletes have a high level of repressive coping. As a result they are more capable than less proficient athletes of shutting out distracting stimuli when it counts. I get the impression the Williams sisters are very high in this trait and fairly invulnerable to whatever psychological time-bomb Hingis tries to plant.

Nevertheless, there is hope for Hingis. Just maybe her remarks will creep into Serena's or Venus' psyche at the right time for her, but wrong time for them, and she'll beat those big bad girls when it counts and is least expected, say at this year's US Open.

So let's chalk up Hingis' verbal faux pas to subconscious strategic planning and not overt racism. "Oh Lord, please don't let her be SWISS-MISS-UNDERSTOOD."

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Dr. Roland A. Carlstedt has followed the professional tennis tours since 1985, fulltime from 1989-1998 in which he on average attended 25 tournaments a year including all Grand Slam events and important Davis Cup ties. During this time he complied perhaps the most extensive database in existence on the psychological performance, tendencies, and profiles of most ATP and WTA players. His annual Psychological World Rankings for Tennis have been published since 1991 more than 500 times in over 40 countries. His rankings and data are based on his Psychological Observation System for Tennis. Interestingly his 2000 rankings which were released prior to the 2001 Australian Open had 2 of 4 semifinalists and 8 of 16 quarterfinalists on them including such unlikely players as Arnaud Clement and Sebastian Grossjean. His 2001 rankings will appear in TennisONE at the end of the year.

Last Updated 8/28/01. To contact us, please email to: webmaster@tennisone.com