Running News Daily

How Much Do Tennis Players Run Per Match?

How far does a professional tennis player actually run during a match? It sure looks like a lot of work chasing balls back and forth along the baseline.

Well, according to data that IBM and SI.com teamed up to track and publish data from the 2015 Australian Open, it varies depending on playing style.

The research reveals that, among the top men, David Ferrer (photo), who is known for his speed and agility, covers the most distance. Through three rounds of the tournament, Ferrer had run approximately 10,000 meters or 6.2 miles, which is particularly impressive when you consider how tiny a tennis court is (27 feet wide for singles).

On the other end of the spectrum, top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who was forced to stop due to a shoulder injury in this year’s tournament, had covered less than half that distance, somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 meters or about 2.5 to 3.1 miles through three rounds of play.

SI.com reports that this is because Djokovic tends to play closer to the baseline, while Ferrer plays farther back. It’s also worth pointing out that the length of each game, set, and match will affect how long the match goes—the longer the set or match, the more running required.

A similar analysis conducted at the 2014 U.S. Open found that Caroline Wozniacki ran more than twice as far as Serena Williams (9,709 meters or around 6 miles for Wozniacki, and 4,509 meters or 2.8 miles for Williams) to make it to the final. Williams defeated Wozniacki in the 2014 final, but Wozniacki famously put all that running to good use two months later when she ran her first marathon, New York City, in 3:26:33. This year, Williams proves you don’t need to run all that much to win as she advances to the 2019 U.S. Open Women’s Final this weekend.

Wozniacki isn’t the only top tennis player to be marathon-curious. Both Djokovic and Andy Murray have expressed interest in running a marathon after retirement. But for Federer and Williams, it’s a hard pass for now—both feeling that they are not suited for the distance.

Because of the high-intensity of tennis, playing a few matches will help your cardio capacity. “It’s very intense. You are conditioning. It's a very hard workout and allows you to stay in shape,” says Kevin Vincent, M.D., Ph.D., the director of the University of Florida Running Medicine Clinic. Plus, running is an activity performed primarily on the sagittal plane of motion, which includes front-to-back movements like walking. By incorporating tennis into your training, you will benefit from the lateral or side-to-side movements.

That said, your legs still take a beating, and it can cause injury. The biggest risk to worry about? Calf and hamstring injuries, says Darrin Bright, M.D., OhioHealth sports medicine doctor and ultra marathoner. “If your foot catches or you plant wrong, you could get muscle strains. Tennis elbow is common among tennis players, but I primarily see acute muscles strains,” Bright says.

Ultimately. it’s fine to play (not to mention fun!), and may help strengthen your body and balance your leg muscles, just don’t try to rally on long run days or when you do a hard workout.