As seven-time grand slam singles champion Venus Williams said upon her comeback to the sport late last month: \u201cDo you know how hard it is to play tennis? \u2026 You\u2019re running the whole time, lifting weights and just, like, dying. And then you repeat it the next day.\u201d
Fellow American Frances Tiafoe voiced a similar belief last year: \u201cIt\u2019s the hardest sport in the world,\u201d he told Sky Sports.
So, what is it that makes tennis so challenging? Are singles tennis players the fittest of all athletes in any sport?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sports scientist Dr. Mark Kovacs believes so, heartily agreeing with Tiafoe. The former tennis player has dedicated years to researching fitness, training and recovery methods across sports and has worked with athletes from the NBA, MLB, US women\u2019s national soccer team (USWNT) and WTA and ATP Tours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kovacs admits he\u2019s slightly biased due to his affinity for the game he grew up playing, but also has decades of research experience to back his belief that tennis players are among the fittest \u2013 and toughest \u2013 athletes in the world.
Technical and physical attributes
It\u2019s hard to think of a sport that requires such an extreme spectrum of skills as tennis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max), maximum heart rate, resting heart rate and heart rate variability to analyze recovery are usually the focal points of aerobic fitness monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most athletes know their VO2 max and you might hear the measurement thrown around quite a bit when the Tour de France comes around or you\u2019re watching the Olympic Games.
VO2 max is measured as milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute of exercise. Put simply, the best aerobic athletes \u2013 like professional cyclists and marathon runners \u2013 are likely above 70ml O2\/kg\/min mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLow 60s is usually what we see, which is comparable to most soccer players\u2026 so they\u2019re at the top tier,\u201d Kovacs says
\u201c(But) Tennis players will easily beat a professional cyclist or marathon runner in pretty much everything outside of VO2 and lactate, sometimes.\u201d
Tennis is not a marathon; each match is a series of short sprints in every direction over multiple hours. Tennis at the elite level, though, additionally requires cat-like agility and explosiveness in the blink of an eye to react to an opponent\u2019s latest shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re (tennis players) not going to be at the top of any one physical attribute. They\u2019re not the strongest. They\u2019re not going to bench press like an NFL lineman would. They\u2019re not going to squat like some of the top powerlifters do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut 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.\u201d
Despite their contrasting styles, the top two men\u2019s tennis players \u2013 Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner \u2013 are prime examples.
\u201cAlcaraz is a lot more speed, power, explosiveness. He\u2019s got that piece that is his strength,\u201d says Kovacs. \u201cWhereas Sinner, his ability to be stable in any position on the court and decelerate effectively is something that makes him so good.\u201d
Back in June, Alcaraz mounted a historic comeback after being two sets down and facing three championship points against Sinner in one of the greatest men\u2019s French Open finals ever. Research like Kovacs\u2019 has shown the negative impact fatigue has on hitting accuracy \u2013 and this was five-and-a-half hours of the best physicality and mental stamina on display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat endurance piece on the men\u2019s side, especially because of the longer length of matches in the grand slams, is a requirement,\u201d Kovacs explains.
\u201cYou can have the most speed, the most power, the most strength. You can have the best mind. But if your aerobic capacity, if your work capacity is not really, really high, you\u2019re not going to be able to last in five-set matches.
\u201cIf you don\u2019t have the endurance, the work capacity, you\u2019re never going to be at the top of the game.\u201d
\u2018Tough as nails\u2019
It was also world No. 1 and then No. 2 matching up in the women\u2019s final at Roland Garros. Eventual winner Coco Gauff also rallied following a shaky start to beat Aryna Sabalenka in three sets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSabalenka is a phenomenal athlete. Strong, powerful, moves fantastic. And, you know, is able to hit the ball as hard as anyone,\u201d Kovacs says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCoco Gauff, who I\u2019ve spent quite a bit of time with over the years, is one of the best overall athletes in any sport. You could put her on a soccer pitch, and she would handle that just fine. You could put her in track and field, and she would crush it.
\u201cShe\u2019s an unbelievable overall athlete, across speed, agility and her endurance is phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kovacs says he\u2019s often asked who the best players to work with and coach are and his answer is always the same.
\u201cWomen\u2019s tennis players because they\u2019re tough as nails. They handle high, high volume,\u201d he says. \u201cTheir ability to suffer in a good way is something that makes them great.\u201d
The suffering players endure in a tennis match, on the WTA and ATP Tours, is exacerbated by the incessant tournament calendar and, particularly at the grand slams, extreme temperatures.
\u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019s more than double Major League Baseball and the NBA,\u201d says Kovacs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTennis players, because of the major international travel, have significantly more challenges with jet lag, with recovery from jet lag, with adapting to environmental changes.\u201d
The sports scientist adds, \u201cAnd the season\u2019s 11 months long, it\u2019s the longest season of any sport in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mental game
The international nature of elite tennis leaves little time for practice and recuperation, taking a toll on even the best.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not just the extreme physical toll of hours on the court and grind of the gym day-in and day-out. Tennis also requires a massive amount of mental fortitude.
Kovacs points to Venus Williams\u2019 willingness to step away from the game as a key reason she\u2019s been able to reinvigorate herself well into her 40s.
\u201cWhereas 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.\u201d Kovacs explains. \u201cThat obviously helps with longevity because one, your body\u2019s not being beat up for as much time. But two, mentally, you\u2019re 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.\u201d
British No. 1 Jack Draper has spoken openly about feeling \u201cquite an anxious human being,\u201d particularly after bouts of nausea and vomiting affected him in last year\u2019s US Open semifinal against Sinner and in this year\u2019s edition in his first round win over Federico Agust\u00edn G\u00f3mez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTennis 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\u2019s definitely something I\u2019ve had to just work through my whole entire life,\u201d the British star said last year.
\u201cI think I\u2019ve got quite a strong mentality and I use up a lot of mental energy a lot of the time because I want it so badly.
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t necessarily help a lot of the times, especially in these five-set matches and that sort of anxiety and those feelings can build up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twenty-year old Alexandra Eala similarly discussed how building experience and resilience were key to clinching her first round win at the US Open on Sunday. After coming back from a break down and securing her first ever grand slam singles win on her fifth match point, Eala said: \u201cI think that mental strength and that focus are the keys to coming out victorious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tennis is a brutal sport of always thinking at least a step ahead of your opponent for hours at a time, all to ensure you can do it all over again the next day (or if you\u2019re lucky enough to get a day off, two days later).
Alongside boxing and MMA, also tactical one-on-one sports, singles tennis puts a large amount of mental stress on players.
\u201cHaving to mentally develop these strategies against different players and different styles, and also the need to think through it. That concept is quite unique,\u201d Kovacs says.
\u201cIf you look at the top of the rankings, you see the best athletes in general. You know, they\u2019re also the best mentally as well. That\u2019s what makes them the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As seven-time grand slam singles champion Venus Williams said upon her comeback to the sport late last month: \u201cDo you know how hard it is to play tennis? \u2026 You\u2019re running the whole time, lifting weights and just, like, dying. And then you repeat it the next day.\u201d Fellow American Frances Tiafoe voiced a similar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG-20250830-WA0029.jpg?fit=1202%2C776&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17694,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17693\/revisions\/17694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}