Tennis is an intermittent sport often performed over a prolonged duration and under mild to extreme environmental conditions. It is also the only major sport that is played on a wide variety ot surfaces, including at the highest level of the game. Tennis match play is characterised bv intermittent exercise, alternating short bouts of high-intensity exercise (+10 secs) and short recovery bouts (10-20 secs), interrupted by several periods ot longer duration (60 90 secs). All of these recovery periods are controlled In International Tennis Federation (ITF) rules, which establish the maximum rest times permitted [3,pp. 10 11]. Fernandez ct al. [2] provide current information on the physiological profile of a tennis match: • Average heart rate (HR) is approximately 60 80 per cent of HR max. • There are 300 500 intensive bursts of effort per match. • A player runs an average of 3 m per shot and 8 12 m per point. • 1 he average number ot directional changes per game is 4. • About 80 per cent of all strokes are played within 2.5 m of the player`s ready position. Fewer than 5 per cent are made with more than 4.5 m of movement. • The percentage of total playing time in a match amounts to 20- 30 per cent on clay courts and 10— 1 5 per cent on fast court surfaces. • MeanVO2max values reach 45 ml/kg/min in females and 55 ml/kg/min in males. • Generally, lactate concentrations remain low (1.8-2.8 mmol/L). A unique element of tennis is the different surfaces that the game is played on. These have unique characteristics that change the way in which the game is played, and influence the physical characteristics required for top-level performance. It is therefore important to analyse the characteristics of each of the major court types, grass, clay and hard courts.
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