The phrase "a tougher performance" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing the level of difficulty or intensity of a performance, whether in sports, arts, or any competitive context.
Example: "The team delivered a tougher performance this season, showcasing their improved skills and determination."
Alternatives: "a more challenging performance" or "a stronger performance".
The round course is a serious test after today's rain. 1 Colour Vision 6-1 2 OPollon Poll 5-1 3 SaddleRockock 9-2 Frankie Dettori and Godolphin have had a tough week to this point but they can celebrate Gold Cup victory after a tough performance by Colour Vision.
Essie Davis is Vermeer's highly strung, perpetually pregnant wife Catharina; Judy Parfitt is his formidable clay-pipe-smoking mother-in-law Maria Thins, and Joanna Scanlan gives a tough performance as Tanneke, the raw-boned serving woman who is the nearest thing Griet has to a friend.
Doers and doings in business, entertainment and technology: Viacom chairman and chief executive Sumner Redstone put on a tough performance during testimony on the second day of a trial in which Viacom and its majority-owned Blockbuster business are accused of plotting with major movie studios to kill off the smaller video stores.
We have got a much tougher payments by results regime, a much tougher performance regime.
"So today we've announced fundamental reform of the telecoms market – more competition, a new structure for Openreach, tougher performance targets, and a range of measures to boost service quality.
WPP said the latest share awards were subject to tougher performance requirements and paid out a smaller maximum than in the past.
The civil service is expected shortly to be awarded a huge pay rise, which will be swiftly embraced, along with tougher performance standards, which will be studiously ignored.
Recruiting outsiders to fill senior bureaucratic posts, instituting tougher performance management and radically shrinking the number of civil servants are ideas that have piqued their interest.
It abolished the purchaser-provider split in 2004 and makes little use of the private sector, but it crucially introduced more exacting targets backed up by tougher performance management.
"There were some real good shots and intent on how we wanted to defend and to keep a good attacking side like Hull KR to nil at half time showed a very tough performance.
