48 hours out: the last practice
The last practice belongs two days before the match, not the day before. Keep it short, sixty to ninety minutes, on serves and the rally balls you use most. Try nothing new, and stop while you still feel good.
Check your equipment today, while there is still time to fix it. Strings close to breaking get restrung now, and if you do restring, hit with that racquet in this session so your hand knows it. Rewrap a grip that has gone slick. Look at the soles for wear on one side.
Read the event details once more: the check-in time, the format, the number of sets, and the rules on breaks. If anything is unclear, ask the organiser today, not on the morning of the match.
24 hours out: the rest day
The day before is a day off from tennis. If you want to move, twenty or thirty minutes of easy walking or cycling is plenty. Your body does not get stronger from a final practice; it gets stronger from resting after the week's work.
Eat as you would on any ordinary day. There is no need to load up on carbohydrate for a match of a few hours, and no reason to try food you do not know. Drink steadily through the day; the colour of your urine is a simple enough guide to whether it is enough. This is general advice: anyone with a medical condition or a dietary restriction should follow what their doctor says.
Pack the bag today, from the list below, and leave it by the door, so it is not something to think about on the morning of the match.
Decide your leaving time and add thirty minutes. Check the route and the parking. If the venue is somewhere you have never been, look at a photo of the entrance so you know where to walk once you arrive.
Go to bed at your usual time. There is no need to turn in early; trying to fall asleep early on a nervous night tends to do the opposite.
What goes in the bag
Two racquets, or at least one with strings you trust. Tennis shoes you have already practised in, a spare pair of socks, a spare shirt, a small towel, and a hat or sunglasses if you are playing outdoors.
One to one and a half litres of water, an electrolyte drink for a long match, something to eat between matches such as a banana, bread or nuts, two spare grips, sunscreen, and plasters for the places shoes rub.
Your entry confirmation, a little cash for court fees or balls at some events, and a phone charger, because the wait for the next round can be longer than you expect.
Match morning: the last three hours
Eat your main meal two to three hours before you play, something that sits lightly, such as rice with egg or bread with a banana, and sip water from then on.
Arrive forty-five minutes early and report in at once. Use what is left to warm up: brisk walking, arm and shoulder circles, sidesteps, then easy hitting if a court is free. A warm-up should end when you are warm and just starting to sweat, not when you are tired.
Ten minutes before the start, put the phone away, walk to your assigned court, greet your opponent, and agree the on-court warm-up and the toss. From here on, two days of preparation do their own work.
Between matches
If the event has more than one match, the wait is the part people prepare for least. As soon as a match ends, drink, eat something light, change out of the wet shirt and find shade. Do not stand in the sun watching other matches until your turn comes.
About fifteen minutes before the next match, move again, briefly. A body that has sat for an hour has cooled more than you think, and the first game of a second match is often the one lost for exactly that reason.
A first match close to home
If there is no event to try yet, THE SET.'s sessions can be booked ahead by members and have fixed dates and times, enough notice to prepare from this list. Sign up and see which sessions are open.
General guidance, not a research finding.