As seven-time grand slam singles champion Venus Williams mentioned upon her comeback to the sport late final month: “Do you know how hard it is to play tennis? … You’re running the whole time, lifting weights and just, like, dying. And then you repeat it the next day.”
Fellow American Frances Tiafoe voiced the same perception final 12 months: “It’s the hardest sport in the world,” he told Sky Sports.
So, what’s it that makes tennis so difficult? Are singles tennis players the fittest of all athletes in any sport?
Sports scientist Dr. Mark Kovacs believes so, heartily agreeing with Tiafoe. The former tennis participant has devoted years to researching health, coaching and restoration strategies throughout sports activities and has labored with athletes from the NBA, MLB, US girls’s nationwide soccer group (USWNT) and WTA and ATP Tours.
Speaking to NCS Sports, Kovacs admits he’s barely biased on account of his affinity for the sport he grew up taking part in, but additionally has a long time of analysis expertise to again his perception that tennis players are amongst the fittest – and hardest – athletes in the world.
Technical and bodily attributes
It’s laborious to consider a sport that requires such an excessive spectrum of expertise as tennis.
Maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max), most coronary heart charge, resting coronary heart charge and coronary heart charge variability to investigate restoration are often the focal factors of cardio health monitoring.
Most athletes know their VO2 max and also you would possibly hear the measurement thrown round fairly a bit when the Tour de France comes round otherwise you’re watching the Olympic Games.
VO2 max is measured as milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of physique weight per minute of train. Put merely, the greatest cardio athletes – like skilled cyclists and marathon runners – are possible above 70ml O2/kg/min mark.
“Low 60s is usually what we see, which is comparable to most soccer players… so they’re at the top tier,” Kovacs tells NCS.
“(But) Tennis players will easily beat a professional cyclist or marathon runner in pretty much everything outside of VO2 and lactate, sometimes.”
Tennis isn’t a marathon; every match is a sequence of brief sprints in each path over a number of hours. Tennis at the elite stage, although, moreover requires cat-like agility and explosiveness in the blink of an eye fixed to react to an opponent’s newest shot.
“They’re (tennis players) not going to be at the prime of anyone bodily attribute. They’re not the strongest. They’re not going to bench press like an NFL lineman would. They’re not going to squat like a few of the prime powerlifters do.
“But they do need significant leg strength because they need to produce, you know, 140 mile an hour serves, which requires power. So, their power training is a focus. They have to have muscular endurance at some of the highest levels.”
Despite their contrasting kinds, the prime two males’s tennis players – Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner – are prime examples.
“Alcaraz is a lot more speed, power, explosiveness. He’s got that piece that is his strength,” says Kovacs. “Whereas Sinner, his ability to be stable in any position on the court and decelerate effectively is something that makes him so good.”
Back in June, Alcaraz mounted a historic comeback after being two units down and dealing with three championship factors towards Sinner in one in all the biggest males’s French Open finals ever. Research like Kovacs’ has proven the unfavorable influence fatigue has on hitting accuracy – and this was five-and-a-half hours of the greatest physicality and psychological stamina on show.
“That endurance piece on the men’s side, especially because of the longer length of matches in the grand slams, is a requirement,” Kovacs explains.
“You can have the most velocity, the most energy, the most power. You can have the greatest thoughts. But in case your cardio capability, in case your work capability isn’t actually, actually excessive, you’re not going to have the ability to final in five-set matches.
“If you don’t have the endurance, the work capacity, you’re never going to be at the top of the game.”
It was additionally world No. 1 after which No. 2 matching up in the women’s final at Roland Garros. Eventual winner Coco Gauff additionally rallied following a shaky begin to beat Aryna Sabalenka in three units.
“Sabalenka is a phenomenal athlete. Strong, powerful, moves fantastic. And, you know, is able to hit the ball as hard as anyone,” Kovacs says.
“Coco Gauff, who I’ve spent fairly a little bit of time with over the years, is one in all the greatest total athletes in any sport. You might put her on a soccer pitch, and she or he would deal with that simply positive. You might put her in monitor and discipline, and she or he would crush it.
“She’s an unbelievable overall athlete, across speed, agility and her endurance is phenomenal.”
Kovacs says he’s typically requested who the greatest players to work with and coach are and his reply is at all times the similar.
“Women’s tennis players because they’re tough as nails. They handle high, high volume,” he says. “Their ability to suffer in a good way is something that makes them great.”
The struggling players endure in a tennis match, on the WTA and ATP Tours, is exacerbated by the incessant event calendar and, significantly at the grand slams, excessive temperatures.
“It’s the hardest sport in the world to play professionally because tennis players travel over 100,000 miles a year to compete in their sport. That’s more than double Major League Baseball and the NBA,” says Kovacs.
“Tennis players, because of the major international travel, have significantly more challenges with jet lag, with recovery from jet lag, with adapting to environmental changes.”
The sports activities scientist provides, “And the season’s 11 months long, it’s the longest season of any sport in the world.”
The worldwide nature of elite tennis leaves little time for observe and recuperation, taking a toll on even the greatest.
It’s not simply the excessive bodily toll of hours on the court docket and grind of the fitness center day-in and day-out. Tennis additionally requires an enormous quantity of psychological fortitude.
Kovacs factors to Venus Williams’ willingness to step away from the sport as a key cause she’s been capable of reinvigorate herself properly into her 40s.
“Whereas other players would play the 11-month season and play every week or close to every week, they (Venus and Serena) would take three months, six months off.” Kovacs explains. “That obviously helps with longevity because one, your body’s not being beat up for as much time. But two, mentally, you’re able to find those breaks, those sabbaticals from the sport where you can focus your interest on other things and then come back and be refreshed and still enjoy the grind.”
British No. 1 Jack Draper has spoken overtly about feeling “quite an anxious human being,” significantly after bouts of nausea and vomiting affected him in final 12 months’s US Open semifinal towards Sinner and in this 12 months’s version in his first spherical win over Federico Agustín Gómez.
“Tennis especially, or just any sport, is hugely mental and physical. I try my best all the time to keep on evolving, to keep on learning, and it’s definitely something I’ve had to just work through my whole entire life,” the British star mentioned final 12 months.
“I feel I’ve obtained fairly a robust mentality and I exploit up a number of psychological vitality a number of the time as a result of I need it so badly.
“That doesn’t necessarily help a lot of the times, especially in these five-set matches and that sort of anxiety and those feelings can build up.”
Twenty-year previous Alexandra Eala equally mentioned how constructing expertise and resilience had been key to clinching her first spherical win at the US Open on Sunday. After getting back from a break down and securing her first ever grand slam singles win on her fifth match level, Eala said: “I think that mental strength and that focus are the keys to coming out victorious.”
Tennis is a brutal sport of at all times pondering a minimum of a step forward of your opponent for hours at a time, all to make sure you are able to do it over again the subsequent day (or if you happen to’re fortunate sufficient to get a day without work, two days later).
Alongside boxing and MMA, additionally tactical one-on-one sports activities, singles tennis places a considerable amount of psychological stress on players.
“Having to mentally develop these strategies against different players and different styles, and also the need to think through it. That concept is quite unique,” Kovacs says.
“If you look at the top of the rankings, you see the best athletes in general. You know, they’re also the best mentally as well. That’s what makes them the best.”