What represents success in tennis? Why trophies and rankings are not always a gauge of victory

What represents success in tennis?

For the game’s all-time greats, it will be a trophy haul at the end of a glorious career and statistics that ensure you are mixing it with the best players in the game.

Yet the biggest winners in tennis are not just the chosen few who lift the golden Wimbledon trophy aloft or claim the world No 1 ranking.

Maximising your potential is an achievement for any athlete and in the opinion of respected tennis agent Nathan Rooney, tennis can offer so much more than just victories and defeats.

Rooney, who is the agent for British players Dan Evans, Liam Broady and Arthur Fery, was a national level junior himself who quickly realised he did not have the necessary resources to enable him to get anywhere near close to maximising his own potential as a professional player and was able to realign his playing objectives accordingly.

Since his playing days, he has gone on to become a very successful businessman, founding and co-owning The Members Agency, an integrated sports sponsorship and athlete management agency, working with a host of European soccer clubs as well as a significant foothold within world tennis too.

In a conversation with Tennis365, Rooney has outlined why he feels tennis gives you all the skills required to enjoy a successful life, even if your dreams on court fail to become a reality.

How would you evaluate success?

It’s not all about winning trophies. It’s my view that success is represented by a player’s ability to maximise their potential on the court and in life. The bigger the bank balance, the bigger the trophy cabinet, the higher the ranking… sure, these are often a by-product of ‘success’ and an indicator of a player’s potential, but these factors alone do not define success, in my opinion. Is the player who maxes out at a ranking of No 250 after giving everything to the game any less successful than a Nick Kyrgios, for example? Nick has achieved some incredible things by comparison, having been ranked as high as No 13 in the world rankings and, of course, a Wimbledon finalist, but if these achievements are well below what he’s actually capable of, is he more successful than the player who has achieved everything they could have possibly achieved… I am not sure.

Is this the same debate we have about Tim Henman? The suggestion that he was a failure because he didn’t win Wimbledon.

Precisely. Tim was No 4 in the world and reached six grand slam semi-finals, but some people coined his career as somewhat of a failure because he never won a slam. For me, that’s nonsense. I do not know Tim personally, but I would be surprised if he wasn’t able to sit comfortably with himself, knowing he gave everything to the game. As a result, he got what he got. For me, the perception of success versus the reality of it is often lost in the surface level tangibles of cash earned, titles won and rankings reached. In my opinion, it’s not what you achieve that is the biggest indicator of success, but more so how it is achieved.

Do you feel tennis gives you transferable competencies that can serve you well outside of the sport?

Absolutely, tennis gave me everything. It gave me the opportunity to aspire and dream. Through that aspiration and the pursuit of those dreams, the game taught me lessons no classroom ever could. At 40 years of age, I am in a supremely positive state of health, happiness and gratitude. All of that is largely attributed to the skills, competencies, experiences and relationships cultivated throughout my 30-year dedication to the game in various different capacities.

Why do you feel tennis is such a good sport to build a foundation for a successful life?

If you try to become a professional tennis player and you don’t ‘make it’, you will no doubt have acquired so many skills that will serve you well in life. I do a lot of work with top football clubs in my current role. Like many sports at the top level, there is a real dark side and football is no different. When a football club is done with a player, it’s literally done with them, instantly. This, for me, is not necessarily the biggest issue because many sports operate similarly, but it’s what remains for the players. The trouble with football, if you are good, is that everything is done for you from a very young age. It doesn’t require anywhere near the same amount of independent thinking that tennis demands from its players from ages as young as 11 or 12 onwards.

In tennis, you are often operating with full autonomy and accountability for your wins, but more importantly, your losses. The frequency of losing is almost unrivalled in world sport when you break it down… tournament losses, matches, sets, games and points! The person specification skills and resilience that derive from those ‘losses’ are anything but a failure and truly contribute to giving its players great foundations for future success in life.

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Do you feel there are transferable skills between what you learn in tennis and in the business world?

Absolutely, yes. Having started my business with no prior industry experience, I am an example of that myself. Some of the highest achievers I have met in business have some kind of elite sporting background or are able to demonstrate a commitment to a sporting discipline over a prolonged period of time at one point or another in their lives. I certainly do want to champion tennis, but mainly, it’s the transferable skills and competencies you acquire through the pursuit of excellence in any discipline that need to be recognised and utilised as a springboard to future success.

I feel that tennis equips you with a mindset required to be successful in business, the workplace and at home too. When players are trying to be the best they can be, it can often be a lonely place, which is no different to the world of entrepreneurship, business and even parenting, if you are trying to the be the best you can be in any (or all) of these areas, it can often be a lonely place hence the necessity for a mindset that will help you stay the course.

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