Measures of anxiety among tennis players in singles and doubles matches.

Male and female tennis players (N = 100) completed the Competitive State Anxiety. Inventory-2 about 1 hr. before playing singles and doubles matches. Multivariate analysis of variance of anxiety and self-confidence responses by match result indicated that winners of singles matches had significantly lower scores on Cognitive Anxiety and higher ones on Self-confidence scores than losers. Winners of doubles matches had significantly higher Self-confidence scores than losers. Discriminant function analysis indicated that 72% of results for singles matches and 70% of results for doubles matches could be correctly classified from responses to the precompetition measures. A comparison of anxiety responses by playing condition indicated that, irrespective of the match outcome, scores on Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety were higher and scores on Self-confidence were lower before playing singles than before playing doubles. The findings suggest that precompetition scores on measures of anxiety provide significant indicators of performance in tennis but that responses vary for singles and doubles play.