Noah Rubin’s “Behind The Racquet” • With • Hannah Berner | Tennis 10sBalls

Editor’s note: 10sBalls thanks Noah Rubin for giving us permission to repost these great stories. We wish him and this endeavor the best of luck. Great seeing Noah wearing K-Swiss and playing Solinco Strings.

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#CelebrityBTR– “When I was around nine years old, I told my parents I wanted to be a professional tennis player. I played all sports but there’s something in tennis where being alone out there and improving felt so fulfilling. I loved just moving my body, and honestly it helped me as a hyper kid, to stay sane and be successful in other parts of my life. I’d probably be a murderer if I didn’t hit a tennis ball. Joking of course. By 14, I was ranked top 15 in the nation and I was told that if I wanted to go pro, that I would have to go to Florida. I think when I got there I started feeling pressure because of the money my parents spent to send me there. I started to lose touch with the love of the game. It just started to feel like I needed to win and be successful. I lost touch with the journey and was focusing on the results. I think a lot of tennis players are perfectionists. We’re all high-functioning, high-performing anxious people. I’d get the yips and lose my second serve for two months at a time. After hearing it a few times, I thought I was just a mental case. I sometimes felt like a tortured soul because I didn’t know my brain would let me down so often, since I was pretty normal off the court. I went back to New York City because I missed my family. I felt like the highs of winning weren’t as strong as the lows of losing. I graduated school and played a little on the tour before college. I made a decision that I didn’t want to travel alone and continuously bang my head against the wall. I’ll still have tennis nightmares, where it’s me and the racquet feels like a string and I can’t make any contact with the ball. This still happens and I’m 28. I feel tennis was a place where my anxieties were able to be highlighted. Tennis has given me a work ethic that’s incomparable to anything else I could have done as a kid. It’s helped me to be successful in what I’m doing right now. Because of all the s**t I went through with tennis, I started a mental health comedy podcast called ‘Burning in Hell.’ If you ignore your feelings and inner voice, the next thing you know you’ll break 10 racquets and quit tennis. You need to listen to how you truly feel.” @beingbernz

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You can follow Hannah Berner on the links below:

Facebook | Hannah Berner

Twitter | @beingbernz

Instagram | @beingbernz

You can check out more Behind The Racquet stories on the link below:

Facebook | Behind The Racquet

Twitter | @BehindTRacquet

Instagram | @behindtheracquet