The Secret to Becoming a Great Player - Silvija Talaja

I'll be honest. There is no magic formula to tell you about how to become great player. But if you want try to become a pro, be ready for some seriuos hard work on your body and mind. If your goal is to get in top 100 in world, like this is the case with many girls that i am curently coaching then this should be the way of life.
Every part of your day should be adjusted and focused to be and feel better on practices and matches. Here is typical day during preparation sessions for these girls:

8:00 breakfeast
9:00 streching, warming up, jumping roap, thera bend(for arms)
10-12 tennis
13:00 lunch
15:30 streching, warming up
16-18 tennis
18-19 stretching, excercises for core (stomach/back) or we do running excercises for 1 hour as sprints, changing directions, reaction drills, medicine ball. We do this 1 hour, no breaks. Just short, intensive workout.
20:00 dinner

This is one of the days in preparation phase.
Of course tennis practices are changing with time. On begining we do lots of work on timing, foot work, depth, aiming for wide parts of court. But with time they do lots more games, points, matches with different hitting partners. Every excercises that we do or game we try to make them with pressure. So girls are counting points, challenging each other and pushing eachother to become better. And those who lose usually do some push ups (the girls actually like this and this makes them work harder). This makes hard work fun and they commite more to excercises.
I told girls they should be ready that they will feel tired, sore, not motivated, heavy feet, in pain sometimes. But that is the time they should be strong and give their maximum, whatever that maximum is on that day. Coz on pro tour it will be plenty of days feeling like this. Every week on the tour players change citys, lands, climates, balls, courts, different conditions. So players shall be ready for all kind of circumstances.
And they feel lots of times tired and heavy on they feet. But its what you give from your mind and body on that day it will count on the end.
I always say; "its easier to win when you play your best and feeling good, but to win a match playing poor and feeling bad, that is the art and the possessor of a great mind.