How the specter of FOMO—the fear of missing out—looms large for professional tennis players

It’s time for tennis, the most acronym-rich sport of all  (ATP, WTA, ITF, USTA, WCT, NTC, MIPTC, WTT, FFT, PTPA, TIU etc.), to embrace one that took off like a bottle rocket in the culture at-large soon after it was introduced by author PatrickMcGinnis in a 2004 op-ed in a Harvard Business School publication.

That would be FOMO: shorthand for the fear of missing out.

Understanding the pervasive role FOMO plays in tennis helps make sense of some baffling aspects of the game. Take the structural problem represented by tennis’s absurdly short off-season. This has been a glaring problem for years now, with no signs of progress toward a real solution since the WTA embraced the 2009 “Roadmap” that ends play in mid-November, a paltry two weeks before the ATP finally closes up shop.

Venting about the short haitus is a popular pastime for players and insiders, but one that is in no danger of effecting real change because pop-up exhibitions and other special events trigger FOMO. If you’re a player, it can create the sense that while you’re working on your forehand or even just recovering from the annual rigors, your peers are out there raking in the coin, staying sharp, and probably having a good time to boot.

This is a problem unique to tennis, which is why FOMO is unique to tennis. The finest of players in our major spectator sports don’t have to fret over missing out because team sports have a proscribed season. Staying in shape may be a priority for Patrick Mahomes, but he isn’t missing anything if he doesn’t lace them up during the NFL’s long off-season. The lights have been turned off. Nobody is out there taking what might be his, moving up in the rankings, or even experiencing that magical rush of NFL competition.

“I know you might look in the headlines [and think] I'm a bit of a brat, complaining about something that we get paid well to do,” oft-injured local hero Thanasi Kokkinakis said at the recent Australian Open. “But I'm very jealous of the sports that you can play, sort of, eight months, and then have some time off and regroup.”

Alexander Zverev, a new member of the advisory ATP Players' Council, admitted at the Australian Open (where he was a quarterfinalist) that the 11-month season is too long. But he added that discussions about this thorny issue with the ATP have been collegial—not least because a loaded calendar generates revenue and translates to larger paychecks.

“Having more ATP 500 events, maybe more Masters events, it's a great opportunity for players," he said. "But I think also it is maybe getting a bit out of hand and a bit too much, as well.”

Fine. But bear in mind that only a well-set star is going to be able to resist the opportunity to compete, earn, and collect rankings points. Everyone else will be experiencing FOMO.

The fear of missing out probably plays a significant role in when a player retires as well as when one decides to return. It also helps explain why pros play hurt, or try to get back in the mix too soon after being sidelined  by injury. Sure, there are other factors in play here: Financial need or opportunity. The simple passion for competition. But FOMO is the overarching mindset driving tennis. The players aren’t exactly dupes, but they’re locked into a system that doesn’t allow them much agency that doesn’t also carry a heavy cost.

"I'm very jealous of the sports that you can play, sort of, eight months, and then have some time off and regroup.” Thanasi Kokkinakis

In a moment of clarity at the recent Australian Open, 27-year old Kokkinakis talked about the pressure he felt to retain his place in the game lest he miss out. “It feels like with tennis you're always kind of looking over your shoulder as to what's next. I know you can pick and choose your tournaments, but if you do that too much and take too much time off, guys are going to lap you. It's a tricky sport.”

Just days earlier, returning mother Naomi Osaka, still just 26, admitted to experiencing FOMO during her most recent sabbatical. “I think I realized, like, being an athlete, that time is really precious. I took that for granted before. ... I think overall I'm just happy to be here because I remember last year I was watching people playing the Australian Open, and I couldn't participate myself.”

There’s something more significant and complex than mere ambition or the desire to get up off the sofa going on here—something that even a high-flying entrepreneur, distinguished scientist, or passionate school teacher may never experience. It’s that tennis is a way of life, the tour a carousel that most begin riding from an early age, eyes focused straight ahead. Quitting the ride—even with good reason—can drain a surprising amount of meaning from the only real life you’ve known.

Players don’t like to admit that, preferring to promote the idea that they’re cosmopolitan and well-balanced, “much more” than just ATP or WTA pros. But life on the carousel is addictive, and sitting on the sofa watching your peers, still mounted and riding the gaudy ponies, can make you rethink your interest in leading what people call a “normal” life. Just ask serial un-retirer Kim Clijsters, or some of the other WTA mothers out there.

The hard reality is that tennis is hostile to repose, and a tennis player standing still—as Kokkinakis suggested—is in mortal danger of being left behind. It shouldn’t require an act of courage to use the off-season to decompress from the tour, but the way things are set up it does. Ajla Tomaljanovic took that step late in 2023.

“After the US Open, the Australian Open became my priority,” Tomljanovic explained early this year. “I took about two months of training (most of September and October) slowly increasing my load. I really didn’t have a pressure date when I had to be back. It was more like, ‘Okay, if I manage to play a few more matches before the end of the year, it's a bonus.’”

Things didn’t work out exactly as Tomljanovic hoped (she’s just 2-5 this year), but at least she knows that however things go from here, it won’t be because she was unable to shrug off the fear of missing out.