Damien Hughes

It was masturbation rather than trying to be vulgar.

Masturbation is where we talk about, I must be successful.

I need to do this.

I have to win.

rather than I'd like to, it'd be great to, or it'd be nice if that was the case.

Because when we sort of change our language to be strident, I have to do this, I must do this, I need to do it, we start to make pressure moments feel even more acute than they actually are.

We keep the pressure on ourselves.

And as Johanna explained to us and the work she did with her psychologist, Juan Cotto,

She was creating the pressure that was so acute.

She was sabotaging herself.

She was actually reducing her capacity to just play and enjoy and be good at what she did.

Any of us can start to just catch ourselves in the moment using that kind of masturbation language and just try and change it.

I haven't got to do this.

I get to do it.

Just that one change of a letter.

frees us up and liberates us.

Yeah, his book, The Racket, was brilliant because I didn't quite appreciate the context of what...

99% of the world's tennis players operate within, going on the challenger tours, having to fund the way around it, often arriving jet-lagged and having to get up the next morning and find a practice partner.

The demands of that world, when you read the book, are relentless, but also almost like...

I couldn't find much joy in it.