Late bloomer Moez Echargui on how shift in mindset helped him surge up ATP rankings at the age of 32

The mind is both a mysterious and powerful thing, and once you start learning how to harness its power, there’s no limit to what you can achieve.

That is what Tunisian tennis player Moez Echargui has come to realise this season. As a result, he scooped up the first two Challenger titles of his career, amassed two separate 17-match winning streaks, and rocketed up the rankings to a career-high 165 this week, at the age of 32.

His rise means he is set to make his Grand Slam qualifying debut at the Australian Open in January, fulfilling a lifelong mission to make it to the sport’s biggest stage.

“I think it's just a dream, especially to play the Slams,” Echargui told The National.

“To begin the year playing the Slams, it's an unbelievable feeling for me, for everyone who has showed support to me in the past years, for my family, especially for my dad and mom, who are my supporters from day one.

“They know everything about tennis now, everything about me, where I'm playing, they are watching all the matches.

"So it's going to be very exciting. And I'm really looking for it. Especially going to Australia, it's unbelievable, because when I grew up, I always watched that on TV, with those big guys, now I'm going to be part of it. And it's very emotional, that's for sure.”

In the last four weeks, Echargui won three tournaments in a row – a Challenger in Porto, Portugal, an M25 in Monastir, Tunisia, and a Challenger in Crete, Greece.

After starting the year ranked outside the top 500, he is now the highest-ranked Arab player on the ATP Tour and has no points to defend for the rest of the year.

It’s been a long journey for the Tunisian Olympian, who turned pro in 2017 after spending five years studying at and playing for the University of Nevada.

Did he always have the belief he would reach this level?

“I think in everything in life, you believe in something, but you're kind of uncertain about certain things,” he explains.

“Because after all, we all fear the unknown. And of course, after college, going to the circuit, you see all these big players, you say, 'OK, I'm not comfortable. After all, I don't know the circuit, I don't know the tour, I don't know the players. I don't know how it's going. I don't know really the level where I'm at'.

“Of course, in the beginning, I had goals in my mind. That's what kept me going through. But the more weeks and months and years go along, you can shape yourself. If I tell you, I've always known I would win a Challenger, I would be lying. Because we never know.

“Winning, I think it's kind of a proof to yourself and to say, 'OK, let's keep moving forward'. It helps to keep moving forward, to keep shaping the goals and maybe to keep also pushing for more. For me, the Challengers are not the goal. Hopefully, they're just a point in my journey.”

Echargui got a taste of the big leagues last year at the Paris Olympics after qualifying for the event by clinching gold at the African Games. He lost in three sets to Dan Evans but got a glimpse of what it was like being among the best players in the world, while competing at a historic venue like Roland Garros.

That experience provided a boost for Echargui, but he wasn’t able to build momentum after that as he sustained a hamstring injury that sidelined him for the last four months of the year.

While he was away from the tour training at his base in Milan, Echargui made the conscious decision to work on his mental game just as much as he did on his tennis and physicality.

“I had this reflection,” said Echargui. “I was seeing myself going every day, training from 8.30 to 12, 2pm to almost 6pm. Training tennistically and physically every day, from Monday to Friday, every day, week in, week out, and I was saying to myself, if I can train that many hours, putting that effort, physically, and tennistically, why can I not put that same effort in the mental part? Which before I was doing it, but I was not really giving it too much importance.

“So I feel like with that reflection last year, seeing myself going there and just putting so much work on those two aspects and leaving, which in tennis, the mental part of the game is I think the most important. I said, 'OK, let's give it a try. Let's give it all like this year and see what happens'.”

Echargui started reading books about the mental side of sport, and got into meditation and visualisation. He Photoshopped himself into photos that originally featured other players competing at tournaments he longed to compete in, like Wimbledon or the other Slams, and into images of players holding trophies. He kept a few of those edited photos on his phone and regularly looked at them.

“I’m visualising a lot, seeing myself in the future, trying to feel it, feeling the wins, feeling where I want to be in the future,” he added.

“I also started writing a lot. I have a book in which I would write about my experience, write about myself and write about my journey, my goals, where I want to go.

“But it's more about taking the time for myself, because I feel like we are always rushing, going from one place to another. So it's more about taking the time for myself, just to set one hour a day, or even have chunks within the day, like 20 minutes, 20 minutes, 20 minutes, but to be doing it on a regular basis. And just keep this process and keeping it every day.

“And that's what I've been doing from the beginning of the year. And it's going the right way. So right now I'm looking forward to even push it to another level and try to see what happens.”

Liverpool legend Mohamed Salah has frequently spoken about how he has visualised every goal he ever scored before he actually scored them. Tunisian tennis player Ons Jabeur had the Wimbledon trophy set as her phone lockscreen the year she made her first final at the Championships.

“Actually that's how you programme your mind, seeing those things on a regular basis,” said Echargui.

“And also, you’ll be feeling comfortable with those things. The mind is unbelievable; it doesn't differentiate between what's real and what's unreal. So if you give it that, it doesn't know, and you're putting in some emotions with it and it will believe it. And then everything will work to make it real at a certain point.”

A key part of Echargui’s shift in mindset is what he describes as detachment from his results. He stopped checking his ranking every week and the points he gained or dropped at each tournament and simply focused on playing tennis and enjoying it.

“It's crazy this year, because all those past years, even when I reached my best ranking when I was like 270, 260, and then I got injured. Last year, I was on that ranking, two years ago, three years ago is the same. And I was only thinking about that, I was like, I want to go [to the Slams], I want to go, I want to go. And for some reason, I was pushing so hard, that that goal, I felt like it was escaping from me,” he reflected.

“But this year, I had just the mentality of just going, to be detached from the results. My coaches are laughing at me, because I'm telling them, I don't look at the points anymore. I don't know where I am in the ranking. I tell them, I don't want to know. I'm not looking for it.

“Whereas in the past years, I was just focusing on that, 'Oh, OK, I'm in this position, I need like, I don't know, 30, 40 points to be in that position to qualify', and I feel that change let me detach from the result and helped me to just enjoy the journey.

“Last week, on Saturday, I was with my coach, and he told me that I’m also locked for Paris and Wimbledon, which I didn't know. That is unbelievable.”

Echargui is enjoying some downtime in Greece this week before he flies to Istanbul for a Challenger there. He will then be on Davis Cup duty as Tunisia are set to compete in Group I for the first time, against Sweden in Gothenburg, chasing a historic place in next year’s Qualifiers.

“It's historical for everyone, not only the players, but for Tunisia, the country, and also the federation, I think even in Africa,” he said. “We have a great team. We have a good chance to make a good run. So I'm very excited about it.”