Its so key to stay loose in practice and matches and really you have to work through that on your own terms. I have just had the realization that it i stop caring about the score and go for my shots that I play my best tennis and since that's the goal for me it's a win win.
It's all about overcoming your ego which is easier said than done. Some days you will lose that battle but you just have to stick with it and you'll develop that confidence in matches no doubt.
I played a match over a month ago against a guy that I was losing too last summer (we played a few times) like 6:2 and so on
Went down 0:5 in the 1st set, then lost the 1st set 3:6 and then won 6:2 and 6:1
It was just like you said now, I started the match tight and nervious, and missed an easy forehand sitter, and then I got even more tight, so many things going on in my head like:
-My forehand is not good, I don't trust it, i just missed an easy ball
-He crushed me last summer but ive made so much progress now, if he crushes me again it means its all in my head and im at the same level
stupid things like that...
Anyway, went down to 0:5 already, and throughout all the 5 games I was super nervious and thinking about all these things, thinking about losing, playing tight, playing nervious... and my strokes were not even my strokes... my forehand that I was hitting was not the forehand im hitting in practice, im griping the racquet 10 times tighter and the technique completely changes, tight bunt of a swing, no lag no looseness..
Then after im 0:5 down something in my head went on, like no way im going to lose 0:6, no way, and I told miself just stop thinking, just relax, stay loose like you know how.. and then my level raised so much that its unbelievable, if you think about it, because its the same player, im the same player, and yet such a difference... once I played freely and loosely I could whip my forehand and get the spin and pace and start hitting shots in and from then on it was different and the more I started hitting the more confident I became and the more freely and better I played.
Some people don't realize but having confidence is sooooo huge, I can't overstate it, at least from my experience so far, when your confident and play freely and loose, you hit with the technique you know how to hit and that you hit when you practice and you play great, but once you start doubting urself, losing confidence in ur shots and thinking about stuff and the score etc.. your technique and shots completely change and break down into something else, and your level drops to the gutter
And yeah, thats why match practice is important for sure, the more you play the more your under these situations the better you learn to cope with them, and once you played 100 matches where ur forehand was on fire, once you miss 1 or 2 odd ones in a match ur not gonna lose confidence in ur shot just like that, because uve been there done that so many times..
