RESEARCH ON NEGATIVE LIFE EVENTS AMONG TENNIS PLAYERS OF DIFFERING SUCCESS LEVELS: THE PARTICIPANTS' PERSPECTIVES

The process that athletes go through is complex and intertwined with various negative life events they are faced with. However, it is considered that overcoming challenges at an early age is connected with success in later years. Therefore, the aim of this qualitative study was to research the various negative life events (injuries, lack of financial resources, failure to be selected for the national team) of various tennis players and the way in which these events influenced their tennis career. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three categories of male tennis players (N = 30), these being: (1) Grand Slam winners, (2) players ranked between position 150 and 300 on the professional men's tennis rankings, and (3) players ranked between position 500 and 1500 on the professional men's tennis rankings. Data analysis was imple-mented by using reflexive thematic analysis. Three topics were generated that included: injuries and the way they dealt with them, financial resources and how this affected their sports development, and failure to be selected for their national team. The obtained results indicate that the differences between the different level of success among tennis players refer more to the overcoming of various negative life events (injuries, lack of financial resources, failure to be selected for the national team) that the players faced during their tennis careers.