What is this Special Quality Called Mental Toughness and Who Has It

As part of a larger study on mental toughness, 18 (eight male and 10 female) former Australian professional tennis players esponded to an open-ended questionnaire that asked them what mental toughness means to them and to nominate mentally tough players, providing reasons for their nominations. A series of inductive content analyses was conducted to analyse the data. Analyses revealed that mental toughness is a dynamic process that embraces a number of much valued and sought positive attributes. A number of current and former champions were considered mentally tough. Based on players’ responses in this study a defi nition of mental toughness in tennis was developed that caters for individual player differences and other considerations.