What are the physical demands required to win a Grand Slam? With the emergence of performance tracking data, the answer is now clear. Throughout the 2022 US Open, USTA Player and Coach Development will deliver detailed analysis and unprecedented insights regarding the physical capacity required to compete at Grand Slam level using state-of-the-art tracking metrics and analysis of physical output. In this installment, we’ll discuss the importance of high-speed distance in professional tennis.
We’ve all pushed ourselves to our limits and endured complete exhaustion. We often call this entering the “red zone.” To compete in professional tennis, an athlete must be prepared to sustain not only large volumes of work but also repeated bursts of intensity; if not adequately trained for, the fatigue caused by these exertions will have a detrimental effect on performance. One essential measure of the intensity of an athletic performance is the amount of high-speed distance covered.
Accumulating a volume of distance generates a load on the body. However, the difficulty of sustaining that load can vary depending on the speed traveled while covering that distance. Tennis players are often required to cover one mile over three sets of competitive tennis. While accomplishing that requirement at a slow pace over an extended period is manageable, accumulating that distance while performing the repeated sprints that are required on a tennis court places a much greater demand on the body.
High-speed distance is recorded when players reach the top 3% of speeds observed in professional tennis. Repeated instances of these anaerobic movements will lead to elevated heart rates, challenging an athlete to execute under strenuous conditions and recover quickly to play the next point. Over the course of a match, players must battle the cumulative effect of continually pushing towards their highest speeds.
Maximum Speeds in Professional Sports
- Women’s Tennis: 12.09 mph
- Men’s Tennis: 14.65 mph
- NBA: 14.81 mph
- Running Back in the NFL: 18.43 mph
- Professional Soccer: 18.74 mph
- Usain Bolt in the 100m sprint: 27.33 mph
Because they are played in a confined space, athletes in court-based sports such as tennis and basketball do not have the space to reach the maximum speeds that athletes in field-based sports, such as football and soccer, can achieve. As a result, tennis players are not typically required to hit the maximum speeds that they are physically capable of.
Instead, the primary challenge is performing frequent and repeated bursts at very high speeds that could push an athlete into the “red zone” where execution begins to drop off. The cumulative effect of high-speed distance can limit a player’s ability to perform the starts, stops, and changes of direction that are so essential in tennis, especially when battling to convert a defensive position into a winning opportunity.
In addition to covering high speeds well, Leylah Fernandez was the toughest player to face in the 2021 US Open women’s draw, forcing her opponents to cover 9.6% of their distance at high speeds. The leader on the men’s side was Matteo Berrettini at 10.5%.
To be equipped to handle these exposures to high speeds, athletes should perform a series of linear sprints with limited recovery to overload the anaerobic system. Try ramping up the speed on a treadmill to 12.3 and performing three short sprints within 25 seconds. Now, try continually repeating that pattern to approach the demands of winning a game, a set, and eventually a match.
It’s this level of effort that allows players to cover the full length of the court at high speeds, converting the shots to turn around the toughest points that decide matches.
