The Outside-In Method: Carlos Alcaraz, Chris Eubanks smiled their way to Wimbledon successes

Tennis, we’ve been told over the years, is war without bullets. It’s boxing without blood. It’s a duel without pistols.

It may be all of those brutal things, but that’s not the way the sport felt for much of Wimbledon in 2023. This was the fortnight of the smile.

Carlos Alcaraz won the men’s title with a wide and seemingly permanent grin etched across his face. Chris Eubanks couldn’t help but smile at his own dream-like run to the quarterfinals. Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur were happy warriors on the lawns—until they weren’t.

Alcaraz, of course, is the acknowledged leader when it comes to showing that tennis is a sport, and that it’s supposed to be fun. Like many players, he smiles ruefully when he misses an easy shot. But the sheer joy of competing—of sprinting across the court to try to belt an outrageous winner—is enough to light up his face, even when he misses.

This was not a regular part of the last generation’s repertoire. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal celebrated with fist-pumps and vamoses, but rarely with an unadulterated smile. Nadal said he felt like smiling during competition would have felt phony; for him, the happiness came at the moment of victory. Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic have been more open with their emotions, but their smiles tend to be on the sarcastic side.

There seems to be universal agreement that Alcaraz’s visible delight in his work is a good thing for tennis. But is it good for you, too? Can smiling more help your game?

Dr. Patrick Cohn, founder of Peak Performance Sports, a mental coaching firm based in Windermere, Fla., says he “definitely” recommends it.

“A lot of tennis players are perfectionists, and they’re very self-critical,” Cohn says. “We all know the script that we can get into: After every miss, you say to yourself, ‘that was awful,’ or ‘what am I doing?’ Smiling is a way to interrupt that negative script.”

Cohn describes smiling as an “outside-in” psychological tactic: an external act that can have an effect on how you feel internally. It can be a reminder that you’re supposed to be enjoying yourself, rather than feeling pressure to perform a task perfectly.

The traditional method for learning anything is to be reminded of—and sometimes scolded for—what you did wrong. Many of us mimic that pattern in our minds while we’re playing. Instead of always chastising yourself for your mistakes, celebrate a good shot with a smile and you’ll feel more positive about what’s to come in a match. You can change your train of thought onto a lighter, more upbeat track.

But Cohn cautions that (a) every player is different, and (b) any mental tactic can be taken too far. The best way to have fun on a court, after all, is to win.

“Smiling more is something that can help players who are really wound up and serious, and who need to back it down a little,” he says. But if you’re already naturally loose, “smiling all the time may break up your concentration and make you lose focus.”

According to Cohn, expectations play a big role in any player’s demeanor. It was easy, he says, for Eubanks to have fun at Wimbledon, because no one expected him to make the quarterfinals. The opposite was true for Djokovic, who was favored every time he played. That in turn made grinning his way through his matches more difficult.

“You can see the pressure he’s under in all of the [pre-serve] ball bounces,” Cohn says.

But that also makes it more valuable, for players feeling the pressure of expectations, to try to stay positive, whether it’s with a fist pump or a “Come on” or a smile. Djokovic picks his spots to rev himself up.

What about Nadal’s belief that, in his case, smiling on court would have felt fake?

“Rafa is grinding, he’s serious, he’s focused,” Cohn says. “The out-to-in idea doesn’t work for him. With him, he feels like smiling isn’t connected to the emotions he has during a match.”

Which is fine, because the fist-pump and the “vamos!” have always been Nadal’s messages of positivity to himself, and he’s never had a problem staying upbeat.

But just as Rafa ushered in new ways of celebrating, Alcaraz may usher in a fad for smiling. If it helps the rest of us stay more positive on court, that will be one more reason we should be glad to have the kid around. Tennis may still be boxing without blood, but it may feel a little more like fun, too.