Optimising young tennis athletes’ performance and mental strength in competition - the role of sports psychology

Tennis, a widely played and highly competitive sport, has become increasingly popular globally. In Malaysia, ROG, a new tennis junior development programme collaborating with the International Tennis Federation (ITF), had been introduced in 2024 to provide foundational tennis education, targeting children aged 8 to 10. Young tennis players face various obstacles, including demanding training loads, academic requirements and expectations from parents and coaches. In this context, sport psychology, which applies the psychological expertise in promoting athletes’ mental wellbeing, plays a pivotal role in optimizing athletic performance and mental strength in competition. This narrative review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of mental health assessment methods and mental health interventions. A total of 19 articles addressing the objective of this review were included. The study results suggested that various tools and interventions, particularly the Sport Anxiety Scale-2 and motor imagery training, can be implemented in current training routine. However, further research needs to be conducted as there is a lack of studies focusing on Malaysian-translated versions of mental health assessment tools and mental health interventions for young tennis players in Malaysia.