Competitive tennis play requires a combination of the major physiological variables; however, the specifics of these variables have yet to be determined appropriately. General strength and flexibility training have been suggested as being beneficial for performance and injury prevention, yet specific guidelines are lacking. This paper provides a review of specific studies that relate to competitive tennis, and highlights the need for tennis-specific training as opposed to generalised physical training. It identifies specific studies that support the premise that tennis has physiological requirements which need to be understood when designing training and research programmes.

The game of tennis has evolved from the wooden-racket era of long, crafty points based on style and finesse, to the current fast paced, explosive sport based on power, strength and speed, where 210 km/h serves are common. This evolution over the last 20 years has led to an increased interest in tennis research. Competitive tennis athletes need a mixture of anaerobic skills, such as speed, agility and power, combined with high aerobic capabilities. The work-to-rest ratios of competitive tennis athletes range between 1 : 3 and 1 : 5, and fatigue has been shown to greatly reduce the hitting accuracy. Competitive male tennis athletes maintain body fat <12% and have maximal oxygen uptake values >50 mL/kg/min, and as high as 70 mL/kg/min. Results from lactate testing in tennis players are inconclusive as some studies have shown increased levels, whilst other studies have shown little or no change. Further investigation is required to determine the production and utilisation effects of lactate from playing tennis. The average length of time to play a point in tennis is <10 seconds and this has declined substantially in the last 20 years. Further research is needed to investigate tournament performance and its effect on fatigue, recovery, hormonal and injury levels. As the game of tennis continues to change, the physiological parameters must be continually investigated to help provide athletes, coaches and trainers with information that will aid in the development of efficient and productive tennis performance and injury prevention programmes.

The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of a combined explosive strength (ExpS) and repeated sprint (RS)-training program (2 times per week) on performance (sprint, jumping ability, and RS ability [RSA]) in young elite tennis players during a competitive period. Eight competitive internationally ranked male junior tennis players participated in an 8-week training intervention. After training, except for percentage of decrement in the RS test (p = 0.72) and maximal aerobic performance (p = 1.0), all performance variables (i.e., sprint, countermovement jump, and RSA) were significantly improved (p ≤ 0.05; effect sizes ranging from 0.56 to 1.12). Although one can expect greater effects of ExpS or RS training programs alone than a combined program, the results obtained here show that the inclusion of a combined ExpS and RS training program seems to be an effective training tool to improve neuromuscular performance (i.e., changes in jumping ability and single sprint) as well as RSA in high-level tennis players.

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Background: All competitive tennis players take time away from coaches throughout the year; however, little information is available as to the short-term physiological effect of these breaks. Objective: The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the impact of a 5 week off-campus structured, yet unsupervised, break from regular training in top collegiate tennis players. Methods: A nationally ranked collegiate NCAA Division I male tennis team (n = 8) performed a test battery in December and again in January after a 5 week period of recommended, yet unsupervised, training. The tests performed were 5, 10 and 20 m sprints, spider agility test, medicine ball power throws, standing long jump, Wingate anaerobic power test, VO 2max , push-up and sit-up test, grip strength and range of motion (ROM) measures (goniometer) of the shoulder, hip, hamstring and quadriceps. Conclusions: These results suggest that a 5 week interruption of normal training can result in significant reductions in speed, power and aerobic capacity in competitive tennis players, likely owing to poor compliance with the prescribed training regimen. Therefore, coaches and trainers might benefit from techniques (eg, pre-and post-testing) requiring athletes' to have accountability for unsupervised workouts.

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Acute injuries occurred more frequently than gradual-onset injuries, and most common injury types were similar to previously examined populations. However, there were differences in injury location trends compared to previous research, suggesting that further research in this elite-level population is warranted.

Background:The tennis serve is a complex stroke characterized by a series of segmental rotations involving the entire kinetic chain. Many overhead athletes use a basic 6-stage throwing model; however, the tennis serve does provide some differences.Evidence Acquisition:To support the present 8-stage descriptive model, data were gathered from PubMed and SPORTDiscus databases using keywords tennis and serve for publications between 1980 and 2010.Results:An 8-stage model of analysis for the tennis serve that includes 3 distinct phases—preparation, acceleration, and follow-through—provides a more tennis-specific analysis than that previously presented in the clinical tennis literature. When a serve is evaluated, the total body perspective is just as important as the individual segments alone.Conclusion:The 8-stage model provides a more in-depth analysis that should be utilized in all tennis players to help better understand areas of weakness, potential areas of injury, as well as components that can be improved for greater performance.