Boris Becker recently named the players he thinks have what it takes to become greats of the sport. These are the young stars with the physical attributes, skill level and mental toughness to make it at the top.

And while it’s perhaps easier to scope out a player’s potential in terms of skill and physicality, their psychological strength is often far less tangible. Although there are few stars of the court that are bigger experts on matters of the mind than Becker.

A nine-time Grand Slam winner, including hat-tricks of victories at Wimbledon and the French Open, Becker has also enjoyed a stellar career as a poker player, earning prize money in excess of $100,000 and competing at a string of major tournaments.

Of course, in poker, mental strength is absolutely key. But what are the lessons Becker took with him from tennis when he swapped the court for the card table? And what are the lessons poker can teach the modern tennis player?

For many of tennis’ biggest stars, that will to win and psychological resilience is ingrained from a young age. The discipline young players develop comes from the early starts, the late finishes and the sheer number of hours dedicated to honing skills on the court. And that’s not to mention the pressure they often feel from those around them.

The Williams sisters were coached from a young age by their father, Richard, who was so set on seeing his daughters becoming tennis stars that he wrote a 78-page plan and commenced lessons with the girls from the age of four.

When all you’ve really known is the grind of intense training, mental toughness develops naturally and, in essence, you have no choice but to be mentally tough. Serena credits it as a major factor behind much of her success.

She said: “Tennis is very physical, and it’s a mental game as well. You have to be physically fit, but my dad always said tennis is 70% mental. And I really believe that, because I won most of my matches, probably all of my grand slams, because of upstairs, not anything else.”

It’s true that the majority of players at the top of the sport will have experienced similarly disciplined upbringings that helped them develop their own mental toughness. But while many have mastered the art of psychological resilience, some have seen titles slip away due to a lack of composure and inability to deliver their a-game at a pivotal moment of a match.

Brit Tim Henman failed to reach a Wimbledon Final during his career, despite reaching the semi-final on four separate occasions. Many say a lack of mental toughness under the intense pressure he felt from the media and fans in the UK was a factor.

Perhaps the most famous example came in 2001, when Henman succumbed to defeat against Goran Ivanisevic, despite holding a two sets to one lead. A rain delay halted Henman’s momentum and he was unable to regain his concentration when play resumed. His play was inconsistent, at best, allowing Ivanisevic back into the contest.

The Croat would go on to win the match 3-2 and then overcame Pat Rafter in the final to secure his first and only victory at SW19. Henman, meanwhile, was left to reflect on what could have been, and he would ultimately retire from the game without a single Grand Slam victory. Was it a lack of mental toughness? Many reckon so.

So, where does poker mental strategy figure in all of this? Could a game of poker really teach tennis players lessons about mental toughness on the court? Whether it’s Texas holdem, 7 card stud, Omaha hi/lo or stud poker – or doubles or singles – you’ll find that the psychological anatomy of a poker star isn’t too dissimilar to that of many great tennis players.

Poker is a game of the mind and anybody can become a master, but it’s far from easy and demands the same level of consistency in performance required by many of the world’s most physically-taxing sports, including tennis.

In fact, many experts believe that making the right decision in a game of poker is comparable to the physical technique of athletes in a range of sports. At match point, a trained mind that makes the right decisions is crucial and it’s the same in a high stakes game of poker, whether that’s calling, raising or folding; lobbying, volleying or a drop shot.

And whether we’re talking about tennis or poker, that decision-making is informed by a range of factors, including emotion, awareness, perception, planning, energy, focus and memory. And if your mindset is out of shape then it tells.

Let’s consider Henman again – or for that matter any professional tennis player who’s struggled to turn talent into triumph – and identify which of the factors behind a drop in poker performance apply to the struggles often endured by players on the courts.

Some of the tell-tale signs that a poker player is not in the right psychological place are:

1. Sluggishness caused by fatigue
2. Inability to think deeply
3. Inability to apply lessons learned
4. Missing basic information
5. Distracted easily and often
6. Repetitive bad habits

When you consider those six habits in the context of a tennis player, it’s easy to spot the similarities and some of the lessons that stars of the court can learn from stars of the poker table. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a tennis player that didn’t see at least one of that half-dozen in themselves.

Many tennis players will tell you that their mental toughness is a byproduct of their physical fitness and that the performance of their brain is attuned to the performance of the rest of their organs and muscles during a game.

And interestingly, many top poker players agree. Malaysian-Chinese poker star Paul Phua believes it is crucially important to stay physically fit for poker “because you perform better when you’re fit”.

He adds: “You can keep fit by swimming, by exercising, by even going on a holiday to relax – that will maybe help you recharge your battery. It’s an important part of the game to be physically fit.”

And while there’s strong evidence linking mental toughness with physical fitness, it’s fair to say that mental warfare is the predominant duel in poker. Now, would it be wild to say that the same applies to tennis? Veteran tennis coach Bill Wright believes “tennis is not a mental game”.

But he concedes that the mind is a key battleground of the court, and one of his key pieces of advice to players relates to mental composure. He says that tennis champions, like the world’s top poker stars, must “understand the essential ingredients behind mental toughness” in order to become a high-performance player.

So while it’s true that a great poker player won’t always make a great tennis player, Becker has at least proven that it’s possible to transcend the two disciplines. And perhaps the skillsets the stars of the two games share are more common than we think.