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• Tennis Essay for Students in English

What is an Essay?

We all know that a pen is always mightier than a sword but the pen is not always effective if the writer is not able to frame his thoughts in a broad aspect. Though we all feel that writing inspiring words that help us grow the mindset and knowledge about people's inspiration alone cannot be enough. We need to focus on the facts, grammar and a lot more things while writing and writing essays. And now we’ll be discussing such tips and tricks for writing an effective essay.

Steps for Writing an Inspiring Essay

Have a clear understanding of the topic: Read the topic and understand what is expected from you over those words. Know exactly what is expected from you over the title and then dissect the idea into parts to think of prompt ideas for writing.

Create a plan: Start brainstorming your ideas, organize your thoughts this will help you get a good overview of the topic and help you write an effective essay easily. A good idea is to make a hierarchical plan about the paragraphs you plan to write to support your ideas and give details about the same.

Research: Here comes the most enthralling part of writing an essay. You need to at least go through 8-7 well-cited resources to get a brief idea of how to write your content. Use more idioms. phrases and quotes to make your essay more informative and quality worthy. While doing this make sure you never use someone else’s ideas as it is in your essay. SAY NO TO PLAGIARISM.

Prepare a draft: Tadaaa! Now comes the part where we have to work our minds off and write down the brainstorming ideas into a well-formed informative essay. Usually, the first draft is considered as crap but if we work and organize our thoughts well using good informative words then our crappy ideas might turn out to be a gold gem.

Make a good thesis: Now comes the important part of writing our strong ideas into the essay.

Respond to the final prompts: The last moment kinks are always welcomed. If you’ve any last moment thoughts, add them up in the draft and get ready for the final round of writing your essay.

Proofreading: This is an essential part. You must always read your essay at least twice to check if the sentences are well-formed and there are no grammatical errors in them.

Essay on Tennis

Tennis is a widely popular outdoor game which is being played in all regions of the world. Tennis was first played in the mid 19 th century in Birmingham, England. Tennis has several variations in how it is played which include lawn tennis, table tennis, etc. Similar to cricket and soccer, tennis is a physically demanding sport. In this essay on tennis in English, how the sport influences one’s body and the effects it has on their body and mental health are discussed.

The Tennis Essay: All You Need to Know About the Sport 

Tennis is a kind of racket sport that is beneficial to one’s body in many regards. Although the majority of people concentrate on sports like cricket or football when they are young, oftentimes they cannot participate in those sports as they become older. However, tennis can be played and enjoyed by a wide group of people ranging from the very young to older people.

Here are Some of the Benefits of Playing Tennis

By playing tennis, one can acquire a better physique. Due to the several movements which are involved in the act of playing tennis, it is incredibly helpful in resulting in a better physique for one who plays tennis continually over a long period. 

Playing tennis results in a person having improved aerobic capacities as tennis is a physically demanding game that calls for an immense level of flexibility among its players.

Consistent practice of tennis helps in maintaining one’s blood pressure which further results in improved metabolism.

Tennis is a sport which can be played by people of different ages depending on their levels of stamina and the activeness of their bodies. Thus, tennis is a great physical activity for older people and it’s supremely enjoyable amongst people of all ages. 

One of the key advantages of a racket game like tennis is its list of required equipment which only includes a ball, a racket, and a net. Along with a ground to play in. Thus, it doesn’t require a ton of equipment or protective gear which makes tennis a readily playable sport. 

Tennis is an extremely helpful sport to reduce body weight, along with swimming. Because of the intense physical demand of this sport, tennis is considered one of the most effective sports for people with the desire of losing body weight.

Another advantage of playing tennis involves improving the reaction time of people. Because of the quick nature of the action, tennis helps increase the reaction time amongst its players.

Apart from these health benefits, tennis is also an effective way of reducing stress among people. According to various studies, playing tennis reduces stress and increases levels of happiness among people, especially older people. Studies prove that due to the physically demanding nature of tennis, it is helpful to people who experience stress. Tennis is also considered an extremely profitable career choice among people. 

Tennis players like Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic are among the highest-earning sports persons in the world. Thus, the career of playing tennis is a profitable one as it can potentially earn its players relatively large amounts of wealth to establish and support their lifestyles. Along with considerable money, tennis also opens up several doors of recognition for its players. Professional tennis players are recognized and adored worldwide by legions of people which include those who admire them and are influenced by them. 

Types of Tennis Courts

Clay courts: These types of courts slow down the ball resulting in the ball bouncing higher compared to grass or hard courts. They are made from stone and crushed shale.

Grass courts: Fastest type of courts that consist of grass grown on hard-packed soil. These are high maintenance courts and have to be watered often and take a long time to dry. It’s difficult to play on such courts during the rainy season.

Hard courts: Made from a rigid material and are covered by acrylic surface layer thus offering higher consistency for bouncing of the ball.

Carpet courts: Any removable court covering. Used in the indoor arenas.

Interesting Facts

Tennis originated from ‘ Jeu de Paume' which was played in France. Jeu de paume was a game played in the 12th century in France and was known as the game of palm. It is believed to be the forerunner of the sport.

Do you know? The oldest tennis stadium is located in London. The name of the stadium is Royal Tennis Court, which is a court palace in Hampton.

The scoring system is based on the clock face at one end of the court. The origins are 15,30 and 40 respectively. 

The US Open was won by Jimmy Connors on three different surfaces.

In a standard match, a tennis ball is usually played in the stadium for straight 20 minutes.

The Essay on Tennis: A Wrap-up

From the points that have been discussed and presented in this tennis essay, the benefits of the sport are clear. Tennis benefits a multitude of people in several different ways, ranging from health to social relations. Regular practice of the game helps to maintain and improve the physical fitness of an individual and helps reduce stress.

A Short Essay on Tennis

An essay on my favorite game tennis.

Tennis is an outdoor game that is popular worldwide and played all over the globe. Several health benefits result from playing tennis, along with mental and social benefits. In this short essay on tennis, those benefits are discussed.

The Key Points

Due to its physically demanding nature, tennis is considered beneficial to the improvement of bodily fitness among people. Due to its various movements, tennis is proven to be helpful to people with stress reduction. The following part of my favorite sport tennis essay states the health benefits of the outdoor game:

Playing tennis results in achieving a better physique due to its various bodily movements.

Tennis results in better maintenance of human metabolism and blood pressure levels.

Tennis is incredibly helpful in losing body weight in people due to its intense physical nature.

Playing tennis helps increase aerobic capacities.

Tennis helps in improving muscle tone, strength and flexibility.

Tennis helps us improve reaction time as it makes us quite active people.

The above points in the tennis essay in English summarize the benefits of tennis in improving people’s physical agility and mental health.  

Tennis is a highly profitable career choice as professional players like Serena Williams and Roger Federer are among the highest-earning sports persons in the world.

FAQs on Tennis Essay for Students in English

1. Who Invented Tennis?

Major Walter Wingfield invented the current version of tennis in 1873.

2. What are the four Grand Slams in Tennis?

The four Grand Slam tournaments in tennis are the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.

3. Who are the Top Three Singles Tennis Players in the World?

The top three rankings in Singles tennis are-

Novak Djokovic

Rafael Nadal

Dominic Thiem 

4. What are the cons of playing tennis?

The cons of playing tennis are:

1. The cost of tennis equipment can be costly.

2. There are a short number of tennis courts.

3. It takes time to learn and motivation might become a problem.

4. It's not a team sport and hence pressure can be high on an individual.

5. You can learn basics on your own but for next-level training, you need to hire a coach which can be expensive.

6. Talent plays an important factor and you may hate being active for way too long.

5. What are different types of tennis matches?

The tennis matches are played in 2 formats. The first ones are standard matches played casually or during official tournaments. They are played either as singles(Played between two men and two women but when played between a man and women then considered as informal), doubles(two teams consisting of two team players) or mixed doubles(similar to doubles but has one woman and one man in each team). The next is other formal matches and these are played as Canadian doubles.

Essay on Tennis

Students are often asked to write an essay on Tennis in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Tennis

Introduction to tennis.

Tennis is a fascinating sport played worldwide. It involves two players (singles) or four players (doubles) who hit a small ball to each other over a net.

Equipment and Court

The main equipment in tennis are rackets and a tennis ball. The court is rectangular, divided by a net. It has different markings for singles and doubles play.

Scoring System

Tennis has a unique scoring system. Games are scored as love, 15, 30, 40 and game. A match is won by the player who wins the most sets.

Benefits of Tennis

Tennis improves physical fitness, agility, and hand-eye coordination. It’s also fun and fosters healthy competition.

250 Words Essay on Tennis

Introduction.

Tennis, a globally recognized sport, offers a unique blend of physical and mental challenges, attracting millions of enthusiasts and professional athletes alike. Its origins can be traced back to the 12th century, but the modern game as we know it was developed in England during the late 19th century.

The Game and Its Significance

Tennis is a game of precision, endurance, and strategy. It is played between two opponents (singles) or two teams of two players each (doubles). The primary objective is to hit the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. It demands not only physical prowess but also strategic acumen, making it a complete workout for both the body and mind.

Impact on Physical and Mental Health

Tennis has significant health benefits. It improves cardiovascular health, enhances overall fitness, and strengthens bones and muscles. Moreover, it fosters mental agility, as players are required to think quickly and strategically, improving their concentration and problem-solving skills.

Role in Social and Cultural Contexts

Tennis is more than just a sport; it’s a social and cultural phenomenon. It has been a platform for breaking racial, gender, and social barriers, promoting equality and inclusivity. Tournaments like Wimbledon and the French Open are not just athletic contests but social events that reflect the cultural ethos of their respective regions.

In essence, tennis is a sport that transcends the boundaries of a mere game. It is a testament to human endurance, strategic intelligence, and social progress. Its universal appeal and profound impact on physical and mental health make it an indispensable part of the global sports landscape.

500 Words Essay on Tennis

The history and evolution of tennis.

The origins of tennis can be traced back to the 12th century in France where it was played with the palm of the hand. It wasn’t until the 16th century that rackets came into use, and the game began to be called “tennis.” Modern tennis, as we know it, began in the late 19th century in England. The sport has evolved over time, with changes in equipment, scoring systems, and tournament structures making it more competitive and exciting.

The Technical Aspects of Tennis

The technical aspects of tennis are manifold. The game is played on different surfaces – grass, clay, and hard court – each bringing its unique challenges and influencing the playing style. Players must master a variety of strokes, including the serve, forehand, backhand, volley, and smash, and use them strategically during the game.

The Mental Game

The impact of technology.

In recent years, technology has significantly impacted tennis. Hawk-Eye technology, for instance, has brought more accuracy in line-calling, reducing human error. Player performance analysis has become more sophisticated with the use of data analytics, helping players and coaches devise better game plans.

Tennis is a captivating sport that offers a unique blend of physical and mental challenges. Its rich history, technical complexity, and the continuous evolution driven by technology make it a fascinating subject of study. Whether as a player on the court or a spectator in the stands, the thrill of tennis is undeniable. As we move forward, the sport will continue to evolve, driven by advancements in technology and an ever-increasing understanding of human performance.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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Essay on Tennis | Tennis Essay for Students and Children in English

Essay on Tennis: Tennis is a game which is played either by 2 or 4 players. Tennis Day is officially celebrated on 23rd February since the year 1874. The game is also known as “Grass Tennis.” Earlier, the game was played by using hands but then people started using rackets to enhance the fun of the game. Tennis is also extended to Lawn tennis as it can also be played outdoors. In this essay, we will know about tennis in detail and know some interesting facts. So let’s get started!

You can read more  Essay Writing  about articles, events, people, sports, technology many more.

Long and Short Essays on Tennis for Students and Kids in English

A long Essay on Tennis 450-500 words has been provided it is useful for students in classes 7, 8, 9, and 10. For the reference of students in Classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, a short Essay on Tennis 100-150 words has been provided.

Long Essay on Tennis 500 Words in English

Tennis is a sport which is played across the world. The game was first played in the 19th century in Birmingham, England. Tennis has many variations like Lawn Tennis and Table Tennis. Lawn tennis is played outdoors in an open lawn whereas table tennis is an indoor game played with two people across a common table.

You can play tennis in singles and doubles. In singles, there are 2 people opposite each other, and in doubles; there is a team of 2 people facing each other. The game tennis is played by both teens as well as adults. Like any other outdoor sport, tennis also helps in keeping you fit and healthy. As it is a physically demanding sport, it helps in increasing your strength and endurance.

There is another name for tennis which is called “grass tennis.” In the 11th century, the major parts of France played a similar game with their hands and called it Jeu de Paume. Later in the 15th century, people started using rackets and now the game is known as tennis. In the year 1873, a man named Major Walter Wingfield invented a version of this game and was first introduced in Wales, United Kingdom.

To play this sport, you need a racket and a tennis ball. The tennis ball is light in weight, empty, and round. The ball is hit by the racket across the net in the competitor’s field. If the competitor misses the shot, the other player earns a point.

The player who scores the first 4 points wins the game and to win a set, you need to win 6 games. To win a match, you need to win at least 2 sets. Most of the matches are played as best of three or best of five sets. To win the best of 3, you need to win 2 sets and for the best of five, you need to win 3 sets.

There are many famous personalities in the arena of tennic such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, and many more. This game is also played in the Olympic Tournament, US Open, Australia Open, Wimbledon Championship, etc.

Tennis requires many mastery skills and an adequate amount of strength and stamina but the most important skill required to play this game is the service. Your serve can decide the speed, swing, and direction of the ball. If you master this skill your chance of winning the game will automatically increase.

A player can earn a huge amount of money by playing tennis as it is a famous sport all around the world. You can get a chance to get recognized worldwide and many endorsements will reach out to you for advertisement and promotion purposes too. If you are a sports lover, then tennis is a good option for establishing a career with high scope.

Short Essay on Tennis 150 Words in English

Tennis is a worldwide famous game played in different countries. It is an outdoor game played in the lawn between 2 or 4 people. The other name of tennis is Lawn Tennis. It was first introduced in the 19th century by Major Walter Wingfield. It is a physical sport which means you need strength, stamina and technique to play this sport. It is played with the help of a racket and a tennis ball.

Tennis is an Olympic game and many players have competed in Tennis at an international level like Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, and many more. There is no age criteria to play sports as teens as well as adults can play tennis at tournament level.

Some of the tournaments held for tennis are Wimbledon Cup, Australia Open, Olympic Games, French Open, and many more.  The sport requirs technique and strength and if you got both then the chances of you to win the game are very high.

10 Lines on Tennis Essay in English

• Tennis is played with the help of a racket and a tennis ball.
• It is an outdoor sport.
• Tennis is also known as Lawn Tennis and Grass Tennis.
• It requires strength, endurance, and technique to play the game right.
• Tennis is also a part of the Olympic Games.
• 23rd February is celebrated as tennis day.
• Tennis was first introduced in the 19th century.
• It can be played as singles (2 people) or doubles (4 people).
• The tennis ball is lightweight and round whereas the tennis racket is thin from the bottom and has a large head size.
• It is an ideal sport for a career and to stay fit.

FAQ’s on Tennis Essay

Question 1. When was the first Tennis Day celebrated?

Answer. The first tennis day was celebrated on 23rd February 1874.

Question 2. Which tournaments are popular for tennis?

Answer: Tournaments like the Wimbledon Cup, US Open, French Open, and the major tournaments held for tennis.

Question 3. Who Invented Tennis?

Answer: Major Walter Clopton Wingfield invented the sport, Tennis.

110 Tennis Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Tennis is a sport that has been enjoyed by millions of people around the world for centuries. Whether you are a seasoned player or just getting started, there are endless possibilities for essay topics related to the game of tennis. In this article, we will explore 110 tennis essay topic ideas and provide examples to help inspire your writing.

The History of Tennis: From its origins to modern-day

The Evolution of Tennis Equipment: How technology has changed the game

The Impact of Title IX on Women's Tennis

The Mental Game of Tennis: Strategies for staying focused on the court

The Physical Demands of Tennis: How to train like a pro

The Importance of Sportsmanship in Tennis

The Role of Coaches in Developing Tennis Players

The Rise of Tennis Superstars: From Billie Jean King to Serena Williams

The Business of Tennis: How tournaments make money

The Future of Tennis: Trends to watch in the coming years

The Greatest Matches in Tennis History: A look back at some of the most memorable moments

The Impact of Social Media on Tennis: How players engage with fans online

The Connection Between Tennis and Fashion: From on-court style to endorsements

The Psychology of Tennis: How players handle pressure and overcome challenges

The Importance of Nutrition in Tennis: Fueling your body for peak performance

The Role of Technology in Tennis Training: From video analysis to wearable devices

The Ethics of Coaching in Tennis: Where to draw the line

The Impact of Tennis on Mental Health: How the sport can provide a sense of purpose and fulfillment

The Benefits of Playing Tennis: Physical, mental, and emotional advantages

The History of Wimbledon: A deep dive into the world's most prestigious tennis tournament

The Impact of Tennis on Society: How the sport has influenced culture and politics

The Evolution of Tennis Scoring: From traditional games to tiebreakers

The Role of Parents in Junior Tennis: Balancing support and pressure

The Science of Tennis: How physics and biomechanics play a role in the game

The Role of Umpires and Line Judges in Tennis: Ensuring fair play and sportsmanship

The Impact of Tennis on College Admissions: How playing the sport can boost your application

The Rise of Tennis Academies: Training grounds for future champions

The Importance of Diversity in Tennis: Breaking down barriers and promoting inclusion

The Psychology of Rivalries in Tennis: What drives players to compete at their best

The Impact of Tennis on Health and Wellness: How the sport can improve your overall well-being

The Legacy of Arthur Ashe: A pioneer in the world of tennis and civil rights

The Role of Tennis in Education: How the sport can teach valuable life lessons

The Impact of Tennis on the Economy: How tournaments generate revenue for local businesses

The Influence of Tennis on Pop Culture: From movies to music, the sport has left its mark

The Rise of Tennis in Asia: How countries like China and Japan are producing top players

The Connection Between Tennis and Gambling: The risks and rewards of betting on matches

The Role of Tennis in Diplomacy: How the sport can bring nations together on the court

The Impact of Tennis on the Environment: Sustainability efforts in the sport

The Psychology of Doubles Tennis: Strategies for successful teamwork

The Future of Tennis Broadcasting: How technology is changing the way we watch matches

The Impact of Tennis on Children: How the sport can build confidence and discipline

The Rise of Tennis in Africa: How players from the continent are making their mark

The Role of Tennis in Conflict Resolution: How the sport can bridge divides and promote peace

The Impact of Tennis on Tourism: How major tournaments attract visitors from around the world

The Connection Between Tennis and Music: Artists who love the sport

The Role of Tennis in Social Justice Movements: How players are using their platform to advocate for change

The Impact of Tennis on Gender Equality: The fight for equal pay and opportunities

The Role of Tennis in Education: How the sport can promote academic success and personal growth

The Connection Between Tennis and Literature: Books that explore the world of tennis

The Rise of Tennis in the LGBTQ+ Community: How players are breaking down barriers and promoting inclusion

The Role of Tennis in Conflict Resolution: How the sport

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How to Write a Non-Cliche College Essay About Sports + Examples

What’s covered:, what makes a sports essay cliche.

• How To Make Your Sports Essay Unique

Great Examples of College Essays About Sports

Where to get your college essay edited for free, or by an expert.

You’ve been brainstorming essay topics for your college applications, and you think you’ve finally found the right one: an extended metaphor likening your experience on the field with overcoming personal struggles. The problem: many other students have this same thought. 

The purpose of a college essay is to make yourself stand out as a unique individual, but when students write about sports, they often blend in. Because of that, students are usually advised to pick a different topic.

That being said, it is possible to write a non-cliche college essay about sports if you put in a little extra effort. Read along to learn how to make your sports essay different from all the other sports essays.

Sports essays are cliche when they follow a standard trajectory. Some of these trajectories include writing a story about:

• An agonizing defeat
• Forging bonds with teammates
• Overcoming adversity
• Overcoming an injury
• Refusing to quit
• Victory during a big game

Because sports essays have very similar themes and “lessons learned,” it can be difficult to make your story stand out. These trajectories also often focus too much on the sport or storyline, and not enough on the writer’s reflections and personality.

As you write your essay, try to think about what your experience says about you rather than what you learned from your experience. You are more than just one lesson you learned!

(Keep in mind that the sports essay is not the only college essay cliche. Learn about other essay cliches and how to fix them in our complete guide).

How to Make Your Sports Essay Unique

1. focus on a specific moment or reflection..

The college essay is a way for students to humanize themselves to admissions officers. You do not feel human if you are describing yourself as just another player on the field!

One important way to make your essay about you (not just about sports) is by focusing on a specific moment in time and inviting the reader to join you in that moment. Explain to the reader what it would be like to be sitting in that locker room as you questioned the values of the other players on your team. Ask your reader to sit with you on the cot in the trainer’s room as your identity was stripped away from you when they said “your body can’t take this anymore.” Bring your reader to the dinner table and involve them in your family’s conversation about how sports were affecting your mental health and your treatment of those around you.

Intense descriptions of a specific experience will evoke emotions in your reader and allow them to connect with you and feel for you.

When in doubt, avoid anything that can be covered by ESPN. On ESPN, we see the games, we see the benches, we even see the locker rooms and training rooms. Take your reader somewhere different and show them something unique.

2. Use sports to point out broader themes in your life.

The main risk when writing about sports is neglecting to write about yourself. Before you get started, think about the main values that you want to express in your sports essay. Sports are simply your avenue for telling the reader what makes you unique. 

As a test, imagine if you were a pianist. Would you be able to talk about these same values? What if you were a writer? Or a chemist? Articulating your values is the end, and sports should simply be your means.

Some values that you might want to focus on:

• Autonomy (you want to be able to set your mind to anything and achieve it on your own)
• Growth (you seek improvement constantly)
• Curiosity (you are willing to try anything once)
• Vulnerability (you aren’t afraid to fail, as long as you give it your all)
• Community (you value the feedback of others and need camaraderie to succeed)
• Craft (you think that with deliberate care, anything can be perfected)
• Responsibility (you believe that you owe something to those around you and perhaps they also owe something to you)

You can use the ESPN check again to make sure that you are using sports as an avenue to show your depth.

Things ESPN covers: how a player reacts to defeat, how injuries affect a player’s gameplay/attitude, how players who don’t normally work well together are working together on their new team.

Things ESPN doesn’t cover: the conversation that a player had with their mother about fear of death before going into a big surgery (value: family and connection), the ways that the intense pressure to succeed consumed a player to the point they couldn’t be there for the people in their life (value: supporting others and community), the body image issues that weigh on a player’s mind when playing their sport and how they overcame those (value: health and growth).

3. Turn a cliche storyline on its head.

There’s no getting around the fact that sports essays are often cliche. But there is a way to confront the cliche head-on. For example, lots of people write essays about the lessons they learned from an injury, victory, and so on, but fewer students explain how they are embracing those lessons. 

Perhaps you learned that competition is overwhelming for you and you prefer teamwork, so you switched from playing basketball to playing Dungeons & Dragons. Maybe, when your softball career ended abruptly, you had to find a new identity and that’s when you became obsessed with your flower garden and decided to pursue botany. Or maybe, you have stuck with football through it all, but your junior-year mental health struggle showed you that football should be fun and you have since started a nonprofit for local children to healthily engage with sports.

If your story itself is more cliche, try bringing readers to the present moment with you and show why the cliche matters and what it did for you. This requires a fair amount of creativity. Ensure you’re not parroting a frequently used topic by really thinking deeply to find your own unique spin.

Night had robbed the academy of its daytime colors, yet there was comfort in the dim lights that cast shadows of our advances against the bare studio walls. Silhouettes of roundhouse kicks, spin crescent kicks, uppercuts and the occasional butterfly kick danced while we sparred. She approached me, eyes narrowed with the trace of a smirk challenging me. “Ready spar!” Her arm began an upward trajectory targeting my shoulder, a common first move. I sidestepped — only to almost collide with another flying fist. Pivoting my right foot, I snapped my left leg, aiming my heel at her midsection. The center judge raised one finger. 

There was no time to celebrate, not in the traditional sense at least. Master Pollard gave a brief command greeted with a unanimous “Yes, sir” and the thud of 20 hands dropping-down-and-giving-him-30, while the “winners” celebrated their victory with laps as usual. 

Three years ago, seven-thirty in the evening meant I was a warrior. It meant standing up straighter, pushing a little harder, “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am”, celebrating birthdays by breaking boards, never pointing your toes, and familiarity. Three years later, seven-thirty in the morning meant I was nervous. 

The room is uncomfortably large. The sprung floor soaks up the checkerboard of sunlight piercing through the colonial windows. The mirrored walls further illuminate the studio and I feel the light scrutinizing my sorry attempts at a pas de bourrée, while capturing the organic fluidity of the dancers around me. “Chassé en croix, grand battement, pique, pirouette.” I follow the graceful limbs of the woman in front of me, her legs floating ribbons, as she executes what seems to be a perfect ronds de jambes. Each movement remains a negotiation. With admirable patience, Ms. Tan casts me a sympathetic glance.   

There is no time to wallow in the misery that is my right foot. Taekwondo calls for dorsiflexion; pointed toes are synonymous with broken toes. My thoughts drag me into a flashback of the usual response to this painful mistake: “You might as well grab a tutu and head to the ballet studio next door.” Well, here I am Master Pollard, unfortunately still following your orders to never point my toes, but no longer feeling the satisfaction that comes with being a third degree black belt with 5 years of experience quite literally under her belt. It’s like being a white belt again — just in a leotard and ballet slippers. 

But the appetite for new beginnings that brought me here doesn’t falter. It is only reinforced by the classical rendition of “Dancing Queen” that floods the room and the ghost of familiarity that reassures me that this new beginning does not and will not erase the past. After years spent at the top, it’s hard to start over. But surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become. In Taekwondo, we started each class reciting the tenets: honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet. 

The thing about change is that it eventually stops making things so different. After nine different schools, four different countries, three different continents, fluency in Tamil, Norwegian, and English, there are more blurred lines than there are clear fragments. My life has not been a tactfully executed, gold medal-worthy Taekwondo form with each movement defined, nor has it been a series of frappés performed by a prima ballerina with each extension identical and precise, but thankfully it has been like the dynamics of a spinning back kick, fluid, and like my chances of landing a pirouette, unpredictable. 

Why it works:

What’s especially powerful about this essay is that the author uses detailed imagery to convey a picture of what they’re experiencing, so much so that the reader is along for the ride. This works as a sports essay not only because of the language and sensory details, but also because the writer focuses on a specific moment in time, while at the same time exploring why Taekwondo is such an important part of their life.

After the emotional image is created, the student finishes their essay with valuable reflection. With the reflection, they show admissions officers that they are mature and self-aware. Self-awareness comes through with statements like “surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become” and maturity can be seen through the student’s discussion of values “honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet.” These are the kinds of comments that should find their way into a sports essay!

“Advanced females ages 13 to 14 please proceed to staging with your coaches at this time.” Skittering around the room, eyes wide and pleading, I frantically explained my situation to nearby coaches. The seconds ticked away in my head; every polite refusal increased my desperation.

Despair weighed me down. I sank to my knees as a stream of competitors, coaches, and officials flowed around me. My dojang had no coach, and the tournament rules prohibited me from competing without one.

Although I wanted to remain strong, doubts began to cloud my mind. I could not help wondering: what was the point of perfecting my skills if I would never even compete? The other members of my team, who had found coaches minutes earlier, attempted to comfort me, but I barely heard their words. They couldn’t understand my despair at being left on the outside, and I never wanted them to understand.

Since my first lesson 12 years ago, the members of my dojang have become family. I have watched them grow up, finding my own happiness in theirs. Together, we have honed our kicks, blocks, and strikes. We have pushed one another to aim higher and become better martial artists. Although my dojang had searched for a reliable coach for years, we had not found one. When we attended competitions in the past, my teammates and I had always gotten lucky and found a sympathetic coach. Now, I knew this practice was unsustainable. It would devastate me to see the other members of my dojang in my situation, unable to compete and losing hope as a result. My dojang needed a coach, and I decided it was up to me to find one. 

I first approached the adults in the dojang – both instructors and members’ parents. However, these attempts only reacquainted me with polite refusals. Everyone I asked told me they couldn’t devote multiple weekends per year to competitions. I soon realized that I would have become the coach myself.

At first, the inner workings of tournaments were a mystery to me. To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side. I learned everything from motivational strategies to technical, behind-the-scenes components of Taekwondo competitions. Though I emerged with new knowledge and confidence in my capabilities, others did not share this faith.

Parents threw me disbelieving looks when they learned that their children’s coach was only a child herself. My self-confidence was my armor, deflecting their surly glances. Every armor is penetrable, however, and as the relentless barrage of doubts pounded my resilience, it began to wear down. I grew unsure of my own abilities.

Despite the attack, I refused to give up. When I saw the shining eyes of the youngest students preparing for their first competition, I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was. The knowledge that I could solve my dojang’s longtime problem motivated me to overcome my apprehension.

Now that my dojang flourishes at competitions, the attacks on me have weakened, but not ended. I may never win the approval of every parent; at times, I am still tormented by doubts, but I find solace in the fact that members of my dojang now only worry about competing to the best of their abilities.

Now, as I arrive at a tournament with my students, I close my eyes and remember the past. I visualize the frantic search for a coach and the chaos amongst my teammates as we compete with one another to find coaches before the staging calls for our respective divisions. I open my eyes to the exact opposite scene. Lacking a coach hurt my ability to compete, but I am proud to know that no member of my dojang will have to face that problem again.

In the beginning, you might think this is another cliche sports essay about overcoming adversity. But instead, it becomes a unique statement and coming-of-age tale that reads as a suspenseful narrative. 

The author connects their experience with martial arts to larger themes in their life but manages to do so without riffing off of tried-and-true themes. Through statements like “I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was” we learn about the students values and their desire to be there for those who depend on them. 

The student also brings it full circle, demonstrating their true transformation. By using the “Same, but Different” ending technique , the student places themself in the same environment that we saw in the intro, but experiences it differently due to their actions throughout the narrative. This is very compelling!

“1…2…3…4 pirouettes! New record!” My friends cheered as I landed my turns. Pleased with my progress, I gazed down at my worn-out pointe shoes. The sweltering blisters, numbing ice-baths, and draining late-night practices did not seem so bad after all. Next goal: five turns.

For as long as I can remember, ballet, in all its finesse and glamor, had kept me driven day to day. As a child, the lithe ballerinas, donning ethereal costumes as they floated across the stage, were my motivation. While others admired Messi and Adele, I idolized Carlos Acosta, principal dancer of the Royal Ballet. 

As I devoted more time and energy towards my craft, I became obsessed with improving my technique. I would stretch for hours after class, forcing my leg one inch higher in an effort to mirror the Dance Magazine cover girls. I injured my feet and ruined pair after pair of pointe shoes, turning on wood, cement, and even grass to improve my balance as I spun. At competitions, the dancers with the 180-degree leg extensions, endless turns, and soaring leaps—the ones who received “Bravos!” from the roaring audience—further pushed me to refine my skills and perfect my form. I believed that, with enough determination, I would one day attain their level of perfection. Reaching the quadruple-pirouette milestone only intensified my desire to accomplish even more. 

My efforts seemed to have come to fruition two summers ago when I was accepted to dance with Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet at their renowned New York City summer intensive. I walked into my first session eager to learn from distinguished ballet masters and worldly dancers, already anticipating my improvement. Yet, as I danced alongside the accomplished ballerinas, I felt out of place. Despite their clean technique and professional training, they did not aim for glorious leg extensions or prodigious leaps. When they performed their turn combinations, most of them only executed two turns as I attempted four. 

“Dancers, double-pirouettes only.” 

Taken aback and confused, I wondered why our teacher expected so little from us. The other ballerinas seemed content, gracing the studio with their simple movements. 

As I grew closer with my Moscow roommates, I gradually learned that their training emphasized the history of the art form instead of stylistic tricks. Rather than show off their physical ability, their performances aimed to convey a story, one that embodied the rich culture of ballet and captured both the legacy of the dancers before them and their own artistry. As I observed my friends more intently in repertoire class, I felt the pain of the grief-stricken white swan from Swan Lake, the sass of the flirtatious Kitri from Don Quijote, and I gradually saw what I had overlooked before. My definition of talent had been molded by crowd-pleasing elements—whirring pirouettes, gravity-defying leaps, and mind-blowing leg extensions. This mindset slowly stripped me from the roots of my passion and my personal connection with ballet. 

With the Bolshoi, I learned to step back and explore the meaning behind each step and the people behind the scenes. Ballet carries history in its movements, from the societal values of the era to each choreographer’s unique flair. As I uncovered the messages behind each pirouette, kick, and jump, my appreciation for ballet grew beyond my obsession with raw athleticism and developed into a love for the art form’s emotive abilities in bridging the dancers with the audience. My journey as an artist has allowed me to see how technical execution is only the means to a greater understanding between dancer and spectator, between storyteller and listener. The elegance and complexity of ballet does not revolve around astonishing stunts but rather the evocative strength and artistry manifested in the dancer, in me. It is the combination of sentiments, history, tradition, and passion that has allowed ballet and its lessons of human connection to become my lifestyle both on and off stage.

This essay is about lessons. While the author is a dancer, this narrative isn’t really about ballet, per se — it’s about the author’s personal growth. It is purposefully reflective as the student shows a nice character arc that begins with an eager young ballerina and ends with a reflection on their past. The primary strength of this essay is the honesty and authenticity that the student approaches it with.

In the end, the student turns a cliche on its head as they embrace the idea of overcoming adversity and demonstrate how the adversity, in this case, was their own stereotypes about their art. It’s beautiful!

“Getting beat is one thing – it’s part of competing – but I want no part in losing.” Coach Rob Stark’s motto never fails to remind me of his encouragement on early-morning bus rides to track meets around the state. I’ve always appreciated the phrase, but an experience last June helped me understand its more profound, universal meaning.

Stark, as we affectionately call him, has coached track at my high school for 25 years. His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running. When I learned a neighboring high school had dedicated their track to a longtime coach, I felt that Stark deserved similar honors.

Our school district’s board of education indicated they would only dedicate our track to Stark if I could demonstrate that he was extraordinary. I took charge and mobilized my teammates to distribute petitions, reach out to alumni, and compile statistics on the many team and individual champions Stark had coached over the years. We received astounding support, collecting almost 3,000 signatures and pages of endorsements from across the community. With help from my teammates, I presented this evidence to the board.

They didn’t bite. 

Most members argued that dedicating the track was a low priority. Knowing that we had to act quickly to convince them of its importance, I called a team meeting where we drafted a rebuttal for the next board meeting. To my surprise, they chose me to deliver it. I was far from the best public speaker in the group, and I felt nervous about going before the unsympathetic board again. However, at that second meeting, I discovered that I enjoy articulating and arguing for something that I’m passionate about.

Public speaking resembles a cross country race. Walking to the starting line, you have to trust your training and quell your last minute doubts. When the gun fires, you can’t think too hard about anything; your performance has to be instinctual, natural, even relaxed. At the next board meeting, the podium was my starting line. As I walked up to it, familiar butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Instead of the track stretching out in front of me, I faced the vast audience of teachers, board members, and my teammates. I felt my adrenaline build, and reassured myself: I’ve put in the work, my argument is powerful and sound. As the board president told me to introduce myself, I heard, “runners set” in the back of my mind. She finished speaking, and Bang! The brief silence was the gunshot for me to begin. 

The next few minutes blurred together, but when the dust settled, I knew from the board members’ expressions and the audience’s thunderous approval that I had run quite a race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough; the board voted down our proposal. I was disappointed, but proud of myself, my team, and our collaboration off the track. We stood up for a cause we believed in, and I overcame my worries about being a leader. Although I discovered that changing the status quo through an elected body can be a painstakingly difficult process and requires perseverance, I learned that I enjoy the challenges this effort offers. Last month, one of the school board members joked that I had become a “regular” – I now often show up to meetings to advocate for a variety of causes, including better environmental practices in cafeterias and safer equipment for athletes.

Just as Stark taught me, I worked passionately to achieve my goal. I may have been beaten when I appealed to the board, but I certainly didn’t lose, and that would have made Stark proud.

This essay uses the idea of sports to explore a more profound topic—growing through relationships. They really embrace using sports as an avenue to tell the reader about a specific experience that changed the way they approach the world. 

The emphasis on relationships is why this essay works well and doesn’t fall into a cliche. The narrator grows not because of their experience with track but because of their relationship with their coach, who inspired them to evolve and become a leader.

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Essay on Tennis | Tennis Essay for Students and Children in English

February 18, 2021 by Prasanna

Essay on Tennis:  Tennis is a game played with a felt-shrouded elastic ball, a tennis racket, and a court. Since 1998, each September 23 has been designated “Tennis Day”. Tennis’ proper name is “grass tennis”. In the first place, from the get-go in the eleventh century, major parts in France played a game like this with their hands. It was classified as “Jeu de Paume”. In the fifteenth century, the players played with rackets. Presently it is classified as “tennis”.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Long and Short Essays on Tennis for Students and Kids in English

We are providing students with essay samples on a long Essay on Tennis of 500 words and a Short Essay on Tennis of 150 words on the topic of Tennis for reference.

Long Essay on Tennis of 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Tennis is helpful to students of classes 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.

The sport of tennis is fascinating, and it isn’t just about as simple as badminton’s down. There are two groups to play tennis match-up in which there is one player on one or the other side, or there may be duplicates on the two sides. The sport of tennis was first acquainted with France, and it was an indoor game yet later it began playing in open and acclaimed as Lawn Tennis. Play-yard tennis, tennis racquets are utilized, which has a handle, and in the middle of it is comprised of stars.

The tennis ball is light, empty and round. It got famous in England and France. Ruler Henry III of France was a major devotee of the game. This sort of game is as yet played however is known as genuine tennis (“genuine” here signifying “illustrious”). The game of “yard tennis” played on grass courts was concocted in mid-nineteenth-century England and later spread into numerous nations. The name of the game is typically abbreviated as “tennis.”

The tennis bundle of the tennis ball is to be thrown by racket to the opposite side of Nate’s cross-rival player, and if the rival can not hit the ball with the racket in the wake of eating the stages or if the ball stays in his back, at that point the score is acquired. On getting more than 40 focuses, the match is dominated, and more than six games are set as SAT. Tennis is additionally remembered for the Olympic Games. It requires high gifted abilities to play.

Tennis is a fascinating game. That is because playing tennis is excellent, and it requires a ton of high-gifted abilities. Most, just two individuals need to play.

Playing tennis is truly exquisite. I once watched a film about playing tennis, which was called Wimbledon. The motion to play tennis was lovely to the point that he drew my consideration. Entertainer, Kirsten Caroline Dunst, was acceptable at playing tennis. She wore a tennis coat that was lovely, exquisite and appealing.

I have discovered that tennis is a fantastic game since watching this film. The point of serving the balls is a high ton of craftsmanship. Playing tennis isn’t that simple to play badminton. Yet, when I figure out how to play tennis, I like it. Point control is vital expertise in playing tennis. Any hindered change will influence the characteristics of the ball. Figuring out how to control point turns into the primary factor of achievement or disappointment. It is energizing to the point that I appreciate it without question.

Tennis is a well-known game. However, Tennis is a racket sport that can be played independently against a solitary adversary (singles) or between two groups of two players each (duplicates). Every player utilizes a tennis racket hung with string to strike an empty elastic ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the rival’s court.

Short Essay on Tennis of 150 Words In English

Short Essay on Tennis is helpful to students of classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

We know that Tennis is a game played between two players (singles) or two groups of two players (duplicates). Every player utilizes a hung racquet to strike an empty elastic ball covered with felt over a net into the rival’s court. The advanced round of tennis was brought into the world in the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth century. At that point, it was classified as “yard tennis”. Tennis before long got mainstream among the privileged English-talking populace.

At that point, it started to be played around the planet. Tennis is an Olympic game and is played at all degrees of society at all ages. The game can be played by any individual who can hold a racket, remembering individuals for wheelchairs.

Other than the way that the sudden death round was embraced during the 1970s, the guidelines of tennis have not changed much since the 1890s. A new expansion to proficient tennis has been selecting “moment replay” innovation combined with a point challenge framework. This permits a player to challenge the authority call of a point.

10 Lines on Tennis Essay

• Tennis is a game played with a felt-shrouded elastic ball, a tennis racket, and a court.
• Tennis is an Olympic game and is played at all degrees of society at all ages.
• The game can be played by any individual who can hold a racket, remembering individuals for wheelchairs.
• This permits a player to challenge the authority call of a point.
• Tennis is a well-known game. However, Tennis is a racket sport that can be played independently against a solitary adversary (singles) or between two groups of two players each (duplicates).
• Tennis is a game played between two players (singles) or two groups of two players (duplicates).
• Tennis is additionally remembered for the Olympic Games. It requires high gifted abilities to play.
• Play-yard tennis, tennis racquets are utilized, which has a handle, and in the middle of it is comprised of stars.
• Every player utilizes a tennis racket hung with string to strike an empty elastic ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the rival’s court.
• The tennis ball is light, empty and round.

FAQ’s on Tennis Essay

Question 1. What is Tennis?

Answer: The sport of tennis is fascinating, and it isn’t just about as simple as badminton’s down. There are two groups to play tennis match-up in which there is one player on one or the other side, or there may be duplicates on the two sides.

Question 2. When was tennis acquainted?

Answer: The sport of tennis was first acquainted with France, and it was an indoor game yet later it began playing in open and acclaimed as Lawn Tennis. Play-yard tennis, tennis racquets are utilized, which has a handle, and in the middle of it is comprised of stars. The tennis ball is light, empty and round. It got famous in England and France. Ruler Henry III of France was a major devotee of the game.

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What is the healthiest sport? The No. 1 pick, according to science

Tennis fans watching the US Open in New York last week may have noticed tennis being proclaimed as “the world’s healthiest sport.”

The slogan was prominently displayed for TV viewers on the side of the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium and is part of this year’s theme at the tournament, “ Celebrating the power of tennis .”

“Tennis is uniquely situated to inspire healthier people,” Dr. Brian Hainline, a neurologist and president of the U.S. Tennis Association, said in a statement .

“Science informs us that playing tennis prolongs life while improving mental, physical and social health.”

Tennis has a powerful impact on the mind and body, but is it the healthiest sport? Here’s what the studies and experts say:

Is playing tennis good for your health?

Yes, definitely, doctors say.

“Tennis is one of the most intense sports you can play with some of the highest health benefits associated with them,” Dr. Elan Goldwaser, a sports medicine physician at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, tells TODAY.com.

“It challenges the body in a lot of different ways,” adds Dr. Gautam Pratap Yagnik, an orthopedic surgeon with Baptist Health Orthopedic Care, part of Baptist Health South Florida. “It’s pretty much a whole-body workout.”

Tennis players live almost 10 years longer than people who are sedentary — the biggest life expectancy boost linked with a sport, a study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings found.

Tennis beat soccer, cycling, swimming and jogging when it came to living longer, though researchers don’t know if it actually caused the longevity boost. It may be that people who play tennis are already fit and lead a healthy lifestyle, Yagnik points out.

Playing tennis is associated with a 56% reduced risk of dying from heart disease compared to not playing the sport — a bigger impact than swimming, aerobics, cycling or running, according to a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine . It’s also linked with a 47% lower risk of dying prematurely from any cause.

Top health benefits of tennis

The sport offers a “well-rounded combination of physical, mental and social advantages” that contribute to a long, healthy life, Goldwaser says.

Here is how:

Tennis works the entire body

The sport targets muscles in the legs, core, shoulders and arms as players run around the court, twist to get a good swing with the racquet and hit the ball.

“You’re really working everything,” Yagnik says. “It’s also teaching other things that are a little bit undervalued — balance and fine motor control ,” the coordination of muscles, bones and nerves to make precise movements.

Tennis boosts cardiovascular health

From running and stopping, to light jogging, tennis activates both fast-twitch muscle fibers — which provide speed and explosive quick movements — and slow-twitch muscle fibers, which help with endurance, so it encompasses all aspects of athleticism, Goldwaser says.

“The exercise that you do from tennis is almost like high-intensity interval training , where you’re going fast and slow, and heavy and light,” he notes.

“That kind of switch and change in intensity through short periods has a lot of benefits for different mechanisms in the body.”

Playing singles is a more intense cardio workout than doubles since there’s more court to cover, Yagnik notes.

Tennis helps with bone health

Leisure tennis players had significantly higher bone density than people who played no sports, a study published in the German Journal of Sports Medicine found.

“From the impact from jumping up and down and playing tennis regularly, you can build your bone density and you can get stronger,” Goldwaser notes.

Tennis boosts mental health

The social aspect of playing with other people is “huge,” Yagnik notes.

Tennis is often played outside, which feels good, and the sunlight boosts vitamin D , which can help prevent mood disorders , Goldwaser adds.

All of it adds up to powerful psychological benefits.

“The mental health aspects of this I can’t overstate,” Goldwaser says, pointing to the study that found tennis players live longer. “I think a lot of it has to do with the mental health aspects. Tennis requires intense focus, strategic thinking, even controlling your emotions and sportsmanship.”

That helps with mood and leads to higher cognitive function, reduced stress, better thinking skills and coping strategies, he notes.

Is tennis the healthiest sport?

“Yes, the data is compelling to make me agree with that,” Goldwaser says. “I would get on the bandwagon and say it’s the healthiest sport we’ve got.”

Yagnik calls tennis “definitely one of the healthier sports,” noting all of its benefits and low injury rate.

“The fact that 4-year-olds are playing it and 80-year-olds are playing it, there are not a lot of sports where you can do that. So that’s a huge benefit,” he adds.

Both experts say many of the benefits apply to pickleball as well, though it’s not as challenging and doesn’t require the same aerobic intensity as tennis since the court is smaller.

How to start playing tennis safely

If you’ve been sedentary, always check with your doctor before starting a new sport. Lessons are key, as is the correct equipment.

Do a proper warmup and stretches to prevent injury, both experts say. Common problems include overuse injuries like tendonitis in the shoulder; or traumatic injuries such as twisted ankles, calf strains and knee pain.

But overall, tennis presents little risk for most people.

“From a health and safety standpoint, it’s definitely one of the safer sports we take care of,” Yagnik says.

A. Pawlowski is a TODAY health reporter focusing on health news and features. Previously, she was a writer, producer and editor at CNN.

72 Tennis Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best tennis topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 most interesting tennis topics to write about, 👍 good essay topics on tennis, ❓ research questions about tennis.

• Tennis: Its History, Rules and Benefits The name of the game refers to the Egyptian town Tinnis that is near the river Nile and the word racquet comes from the Arabic word rahat denoting the palm of a human hand.
• Table Tennis Training The aim of this study thus is to determine the applicability of training of the two aspects, viz.”what” and “how” when playing ping-pong.”What” in this context implies the decision that a player has to make […]
• Australian Open Tennis Tournament as a Product Australian Open tennis tournament is viewed as a product in this discussion, and for it to sell well, it has to be accompanied by superior, innovative and customer-oriented services.As R.
• Strategies of Football and Tennis Coaches in the UK To identify the coaching leadership styles used by football and tennis coaches To compare the motivations for using coaching leadership style in football and tennis To uncover the effect of the coaching leadership styles on […]
• Table Tennis: Developing Anticipation Skill As identified by Bennis and Pachur, table tennis is one of the fastest ball sports, which entail the acquisition of the anticipation skills that are needed to construct and interpret information fast and precisely. Learning […]
• Top 100 Female Tennis Players and Their Earnings A pie chart display of the data shows that the individual country which had the highest number of female tennis players in the 2010 chart of best female tennis players was Russia, with a 14 […]
• How the Height From Which a Table Tennis Ball Is Dropped Affects Its Bounce?
• Understanding the Key Elements of How to Play Tennis
• Mutual Point-Winning Probabilities (MPW): A New Performance Measure for Table Tennis
• Technical Skills for Individual Sports: Squash Tennis
• Physical and Physiological Responses to Paddle Tennis Competition
• Feminism, and the Best Female Tennis Player of All Time
• Loss Aversion and Decision Fatigue at the Wimbledon Tennis Championship
• The Williams Sisters: Double Trouble on the Tennis Court
• Searching for the Greatest of All Times Player (GOAT) of Tennis
• The Inside Out Forehand as a Tactical Pattern in Men’s Professional Tennis
• The Incredible Tennis Skills of Swiss Maestro, Roger Federer
• Choking Under Pressure and Gender: Evidence From Professional Tennis Players
• Sports Heroes and Mass Sports Participation: Paradox of the German Tennis Boom
• Comparing Hart Rate After Playing Tennis and After Playing Virtual Tennis
• Testing Some Common Tennis Hypotheses: Four Years at Wimbledon
• Consumer Demand for Telecasts of Tennis Matches in Germany Analysis
• Differences Between Running Activity in Tennis Training and Match-Play
• China Tennis Racket Market Growth, Outlook, and Professional Survey Report
• Testing Contest Theory: Evidence From Best-Of-Three Tennis Matches
• Quantifying Contextual Interference and Its Effect on Skill Transfer in Skilled Youth Tennis Players
• Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors: Styles and Legacies of Two Tennis Champions
• Tennis and Its Richest Representatives in 2018
• Sport-Talent, Media Value, and Equal Prize Policies in Tennis
• Moral Attitudes Predict Cheating and Gamesmanship Behaviors Among Tennis Players
• Money Prizes and Media Value in Tennis: Who Leads the Spectacle?
• Good Girl, Bad Boy: Corrupt Behavior in Professional Tennis
• Group Differences and Similarities in Mental Representation Structure of Tennis Serve
• Tennis Serve and Effective Warm-up Protocol Importance
• Relationship Between Tennis and Gambling
• Blood Glucose Responses and Incidence of Hypoglycemia in Elite Tennis Players
• Joining the Right Tennis Class and Fortifying Your Basic Knowledge about Tennis
• Does Faster Mean Better in Tennis?
• Ping Pong and Tennis: What Do They Have in Common?
• Forensic Sports Analytics: Detecting and Predicting Match-Fixing in Tennis
• Tennis: Sport-Specific Policies and Factors That Influence International Success
• The Most Important Tips For Better Playing Tennis
• Tournament Incentives and Match Outcomes in Women’s Professional Tennis
• The Life and Tennis Career of Arthur Ashe
• Table Tennis: Effects on Physical and Psychosocial Development in Children Ages 10-12
• Are Attractive Female Tennis Players More Successful?
• How Do You Explain Tennis?
• Is Tennis a Game or Sport?
• What Is the Most Important Thing in Tennis?
• What Are the Facts About Tennis?
• What Are the Basic Skills in Tennis?
• What Are Things One Cannot Do in Tennis?
• What Are the Most Important Shots in Tennis?
• What Are the Benefits of Playing Tennis?
• What Is the Most Important Skill in Tennis?
• What Is So Special About Tennis?
• Why Is Tennis the Hardest Sport?
• How Are Professional Tennis Players Evaluated?
• What Is the Hardest Thing to Do in Tennis?
• How to Develop Tennis Talent?
• What Are Tennis Hits Called?
• How Did the Embroidered Polo Shirt Come to Tennis?
• What Are the Short and Long Term Implications of the Age Requirements for the Job Market for Tennis?
• Who First Invented Tennis?
• What Country Started Tennis?
• What Are the Tactics in Tennis?
• What Is the Slowest Ace in Tennis?
• How Many Shots Are in Tennis?
• What Is the Longest Shot in Tennis?
• What Is the Most Important in Tennis?
• What Are Health Benefits of Tennis?
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Essay Samples on Tennis

World record of the fastest tennis ball hit.

Tennis has been known as a game of inches, kings, game of lifetime…. It is incredible even today with its outstanding players, known with their incredible shots. Novak Djokovic is famous for his crazy shots from baseline to the edge of opponents service boxes. One...

Technological Advancements and the Future of Tennis

Among other sports, many would say that tennis has lagged behind in terms of technological advancements. Tennis players today would learn the same way, and use almost identical equipment as athletes and recreational players almost 50 years ago. The norm would be going to a...

• Advantages of Technology

The Long History Of Tennis Through Centuries

Tennis has been a popular sport for many years. It was created many centuries ago, but has since developed greatly, and gained popularity worldwide. The origin of the sport dates back to the twelfth century. It is thought that the game was developed from a...

• Competitive Sports

The History and Design of Tennis Balls

Tennis is an old sport and has a long history. It was an ancient Arabic sport, and it became popular in France in the 1000s, and it was also romanticized by the English royalty as the Sport of Kings. In the 1400s, the first tennis...

Essay About Health Benefits Of Playing Tennis

Across the world, tennis is associated with rich people, and it has often been perceived as a sport for the privileged in the society. Nevertheless, tennis is a lifetime sports activity that can be played from the age of eight years to the age of...

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Understanding Tennis: The Rules of Tennis

My project is about tennis. I am going to tell you all about the sport and how it is played. You are all geared up with your racquet but still struggling with the crazy rules of the game. This project will help people with understanding...

Best topics on Tennis

1. World Record of the Fastest Tennis Ball Hit

2. Technological Advancements and the Future of Tennis

3. The Long History Of Tennis Through Centuries

4. The History and Design of Tennis Balls

5. Essay About Health Benefits Of Playing Tennis

6. Understanding Tennis: The Rules of Tennis

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Tennis is a game played with two opposing players (singles) or pairs of players (doubles) using tautly strung rackets to hit a ball of specified size, weight, and bounce over a net on a rectangular court. Points are awarded whenever the opponent fails to correctly return the ball within the prescribed dimensions of the court.

Who invented the game of tennis?

The inventor of modern tennis has been disputed, but the officially recognized centennial of the game in 1973 commemorated its introduction by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1873. He published the first book of rules that year and took out a patent on his game in 1874.

What are the dimensions of a tennis court?

A tennis court length measures 78 by 27 feet for singles and 78 by 36 feet for doubles. The net at the center is 3 feet in height, supported at each side of the court by posts 3.5 feet high placed 3 feet outside the court.

What is the size of a standard tennis ball?

According to the International Tennis Federation, the tennis ball must be yellow or white, between 2.5 and 2.8 inches in diameter and between 1.975 and 2.095 ounces in weight.

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tennis , game in which two opposing players (singles) or pairs of players (doubles) use tautly strung rackets to hit a ball of specified size, weight, and bounce over a net on a rectangular court. Points are awarded to a player or team whenever the opponent fails to correctly return the ball within the prescribed dimensions of the court. Organized tennis is played according to rules sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the world governing body of the sport.

(Read Britannica’s interview with Naomi Osaka.)

Tennis originally was known as lawn tennis, and formally still is in Britain , because it was played on grass courts by Victorian gentlemen and ladies. It is now played on a variety of surfaces. The origins of the game can be traced to a 12th–13th-century French handball game called jeu de paume (“game of the palm”), from which was derived a complex indoor racket-and-ball game: real tennis. This ancient game is still played to a limited degree and is usually called real tennis in Britain, court tennis in the United States, and royal tennis in Australia.

(Read Chris Evert’s Britannica entry on the U.S. Open.)

The modern game of tennis is played by millions in clubs and on public courts. Its period of most rapid growth as both a participant and a spectator sport began in the late 1960s, when the major championships were opened to professionals as well as amateurs, and continued in the 1970s, when television broadcasts of the expanding professional tournament circuits and the rise of some notable players and rivalries broadened the appeal of the game. A number of major innovations in fashion and equipment fueled and fed the boom. The addition of colour and style to tennis wear (once restricted to white) created an entirely new subdivision of leisure clothing. Tennis balls, which historically had been white, now came in several hues, with yellow the colour of choice. Racket frames, which had been of a standard size and shape and constructed primarily of laminated wood, were suddenly manufactured in a wide choice of sizes, shapes, and materials, the most significant milestones being the introduction of metal frames beginning in 1967 and the oversized head in 1976.

While tennis can be enjoyed by players of practically any level of skill, top competition is a demanding test of both shot making and stamina, rich in stylistic and strategic variety. From its origins as a garden-party game for ladies in whalebone corsets and starched petticoats and men in long white flannels, it has evolved into a physical chess match in which players attack and defend, exploiting angles and technical weaknesses with strokes of widely diverse pace and spin. Tournaments offer tens of millions of dollars in prize money annually.

There has been much dispute over the invention of modern tennis, but the officially recognized centennial of the game in 1973 commemorated its introduction by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield in 1873. He published the first book of rules that year and took out a patent on his game in 1874, although historians have concluded that similar games were played earlier and that the first tennis club was established by the Englishman Harry Gem and several associates in Leamington in 1872. Wingfield’s court was of the hourglass shape and may have developed from badminton . The hourglass shape, stipulated by Wingfield in his booklet “Sphairistiké, or Lawn Tennis,” may have been adopted for patent reasons since it distinguished the court from ordinary rectangular courts. At the time, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was the governing body of real tennis, whose rules it had recently revised. After J.M. Heathcote, a distinguished real tennis player, developed a better tennis ball of rubber covered with white flannel, the MCC in 1875 established a new, standardized set of rules for tennis.

Meanwhile, the game had spread to the United States in the 1870s. Mary Outerbridge of New York has been credited with bringing a set of rackets and balls to her brother, a director of the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. But research has shown that William Appleton of Nahant, Massachusetts , may have owned the first lawn tennis set and that his friends James Dwight and Fred R. Sears popularized the game.

An important milestone in the history of tennis was the decision of the All England Croquet Club to set aside one of its lawns at Wimbledon for tennis, which soon proved so popular that the club changed its name to the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club. In 1877 the club decided to hold a tennis championship, and a championship subcommittee of three was appointed. It decided on a rectangular court 78 feet (23.8 meters) long by 27 feet (8.2 meters) wide. They adapted the real tennis method of scoring—15, 30, 40, game—and allowed the server one fault (i.e., two chances to deliver a proper service on each point). These major decisions remain part of the modern rules. Twenty-two entries were received, and the first winner of the Wimbledon Championships was Spencer Gore . In 1878 the Scottish Championships were held, followed in 1879 by the Irish Championships.

There were several alterations in some of the other rules (e.g., governing the height of the net) until 1880, when the All England Club and the MCC published revised rules that approximate very closely those still in use. The All England Club was the dominant authority then, the British Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) not being formed until 1888. In 1880 the first U.S. championship was held at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. The victor was an Englishman, O.E. Woodhouse. The popularity of the game in the United States and frequent doubts about the rules led to the foundation in 1881 of the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Association, later renamed the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association and, in 1975, the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA). Under its auspices , the first official U.S. national championship , played under English rules, was held in 1881 at the Newport Casino, Newport, Rhode Island. The winner, Richard Sears , was U.S. champion for seven consecutive years.

Tennis had taken firm root in Australia by 1880, and the first Australian Championships were played in 1905. The first national championships in New Zealand were held in 1886. In 1904 the Lawn Tennis Association of Australasia (later of Australia) was founded.

The first French Championships were held at the Stade Français in 1891, but it was an interclub tournament that did not become truly international until 1925; the French Federation of Lawn Tennis was established in 1920. Other national championships were inaugurated in Canada (1890), South Africa (1891), Spain (1910), Denmark (1921), Egypt (1925), Italy (1930), and Sweden (1936). In 1884 a women’s championship was introduced at Wimbledon, and women’s national championships were held in the United States starting in 1887.

Is Tennis Really the ‘World’s Healthiest Sport’? We Fact-Checked the Claim

I f you’ve been watching any of U.S. Open coverage on ESPN over the past couple of weeks, you’ve probably noticed the graphic sitting on the right of the screen, right off the sideline at Arthur Ashe Stadium: a digital stamp touting tennis as “The World’s Healthiest Sport.” 

That’s quite an in-your-face claim to make, during the sport’s highest-profile, most-viewed event staged in the United States. During, say, the Super Bowl, I can’t remember football touting itself as “the world’s most exciting sport” or some such on the TV screen (“world’s healthiest” certainly wouldn’t work for football) . Or a commercial trumping broccoli or beets as “The World’s Healthiest Food.” 

So bold. And effective: with the slogan buried in my brain, I made a point of hitting around some tennis balls for an hour with a friend last weekend. And sure, I felt pretty hearty afterward.

But is tennis really the healthiest sport in the world? Says who? 

I did some digging. The short answer: it might be. But if it isn’t—and there’s also a decent chance that it isn’t—the inaccurate message running at all hours during the U.S. Open counts as a victimless violation. 

And it could enhance public health. 

Because while almost all sports offer benefits to body and mind, a whole body of research, not to mention common sense, shows that the health effects of tennis are particularly powerful. People experience an array of positive outcomes from tennis, such as improved cardiovascular and bone health, better agility and coordination, and overall happiness.    

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As for its supposed status as the world’s healthiest sport, “I mostly agree,” says Amy Chan Hyung Kim, associate professor in the department of sport management at Florida State University who co-wrote a 2022 study extolling the social benefits of tennis. The United States Tennis Association (USTA), which created the “world’s healthiest” marketing campaign—neither the USTA nor ESPN would reveal whether the USTA pays the network for the in-match digital-ad space—cites Kim’s study in bolstering its case. Even though Kim does “not entirely” agree with the USTA’s claim, given the stress and burnout tennis can cause at the most elite levels, plus the overuse injuries that weekend warriors can suffer. 

The USTA might want to ask someone who’s torn their ACL, or has a mean case of tennis elbow, or Rafael Nadal, who has fought pain and injuries throughout his career, had hip surgery last year and abdominal muscle issues in 2024, and missed three of the four major tournaments this season, whether tennis is the world’s healthiest sport. 

According to Dr. Brian Hainline, the chairman of the board and president of the USTA since 2023, two particular studies gave him confidence to sign off on the slogan. The first, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2016, found that in more than 80,000 British adults, participation in racquet sports of tennis, badminton, or squash was associated with a 47% reduced risk of dying during the study period for any reason and a 56% reduced risk of cardiovascular-related death. Compared to all the other activities studied—cycling, swimming, running, soccer, aerobics—racquet sports were most strongly associated with a lower risk of death. 

Then, in 2018, a study published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that among more than 8,500 adults from Copenhagen who were tracked for nearly 25 years, playing tennis was associated with a life-expectancy gain of nearly a decade compared to those who had a sedentary lifestyle. Other sports examined—badminton (6.2 years), soccer (4.7), cycling (3.7), swimming (3.4), jogging (3.2), calisthenics (3.1), and health-club activities like the treadmill and elliptical machines (1.5)—fell short of tennis. 

Tennis as “the world’s healthiest sport” is “very defensible from a scientific perspective,” says Dr. James O’Keefe, director of preventive cardiology at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute and professor of medicine at University of Missouri-Kansas City, who was a co-author of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings study. “Tennis has better data than any other sport to make that claim. So it's not BS.”  

“When you add everything together—every possible element of eye-hand coordination, agility, balance, aerobic, anaerobic, the psychological elements and physiological elements—that’s when it gets really hard to debate against the game of tennis,” says Jack Groppel, former chairperson of the USTA’s national sports science committee. 

Fair enough. We can subjectively debate the health benefits of tennis versus other sports all day. But that doesn’t change a key sticking point: while both studies make a case for tennis, not every sport on the planet was evaluated. So how can tennis legitimately claim to be the healthiest sport on earth?

Hainline acknowledges this shortcoming. “As a scientist, my slogan would be, ‘Tennis has been demonstrated unequivocally to improve your lifespan more than any other sport that has been studied,’” says Hainline, a neurologist who spent more than a decade as chief medical officer for the NCAA. But you can’t tuck that poppy tagline on a TV screen. Hainline is comfortable with the “world’s healthiest sport” marketing, he says, “because I think there is truth to it. As a scientist, if I were in charge of marketing, we probably would be marketing almost nothing. It would be one asterisk after another.” 

Two sports could have a particular beef with the USTA. What about squash, which was grouped into the “racquet sports” umbrella with tennis and badminton in the British Journal of Sports Medicine study showing reduced mortality risk of those activities, but not examined alongside tennis in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings piece? Who’s to say it’s not squash driving the life-lengthening benefits of racquet sports or that it wouldn’t offer more gains than tennis? 

Another sport with at least a shot against tennis—and that was missing from both studies—is basketball. And I’m not just bringing up hoops as  someone who still plays pickup games on a near-weekly basis (OK, I sort of am). The Mayo Clinic Proceedings study in particular points to importance of the social benefits of sports: the games that we play with or against other people, like tennis, badminton, and soccer, scored higher on life expectancy than activities that no doubt help your heart, but by their very nature require a solitary pursuit (cycling, swimming, jogging, calisthenics, and gym workouts). 

“Social support is the No. 1 predictor of most all health outcomes, including life expectancy,” says O’Keefe, the study co-author. Weekend-warrior hoops is incredibly social, with the in-person and group-chat smack talking a large part of the fun. If being happy helps you live longer, basketball needs to be in the “healthiest” mix. 

Hainline agrees. “To your question of basketball, I would accept the challenge and say, you know, we're marketing based on what's available,” he says. “On the other hand, the one thing you'll never hear me do is promote tennis exclusively.” 

While Hainline insists he would have pushed for aggressively marketing tennis’ health benefits no matter the competitive environment, the rapid rise of pickleball has given the charge more urgency. Across the country, the two sports have quarreled over space, with pickleball more often than not winning out. “Pickleball is a challenge to us,” says Hainline. “Where pickleball is really hurting tennis is infrastructure. It's probably been over a billion dollars’ worth of courts that have been taken away.”

And pickleball could soon fight tennis for “healthiest sport” status, according to the scientist who helped show tennis is king. If the sport, which wasn’t really a player when either study was published years ago, were included in a similar analysis today, “I have no doubt that pickleball would be like tennis,” says O’Keefe. “It would be like badminton. It would be six to 10 years of added life expectancy, even adjusting for everything else.” He bases this assessment on the social bonds among the “thwack thwack” set.

“Racket sports are fun to play for people who get into them,” says O’Keefe, who practices what he preaches. He was looking forward to a match yesterday evening. “It's a gorgeous day here in Kansas City, it’s going to be like 78 and sunny,” he said. “It's just perfect. You just can't do that and not come back happy and relaxed and ready to sleep well. It just makes you love life.”

He was going to play pickleball.

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Tennis by the Book

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• July 1, 2011

“Wow, what a tournament we witnessed this week, Johnny Mac! Before we came back on the air, we were both saying that we’ve been just flat-out blown away by the talent at this year’s Intertemporal Tennis Writers Classic. Some of the greatest writers in history came and competed and showed us what it means to write extraordinarily well about tennis. This tournament attracts the world’s sharpest minds because tennis is a global sport that’s steeped in tradition, and more, it’s a gentlemanly clash of wills where you’re out there alone, and the way you play reveals so much about who you are. Somewhere between chess and boxing lies tennis. So you have to be an elite writer to get through this tournament. That’s why no one was surprised to see Touré get knocked out in the first round. Sure, he’s done some nice stories, like his profile of Jennifer Capriati for Vogue, in which he hits with her. Do we have a clip from that? ‘The whole incident takes on the feel of intense aerobics mixed with a back-alley mugging, and you’re just deflecting and defending and, eventually, after eight or nine minutes, your arm starts to throb and your lungs start to shriek and each new shot racing at you is like a punch to the chest and you feel her inner bully.’ Touré’s a solid player, but in this tournament your forehand is your vocabulary, your backhand is your eye for detail, your ability to turn words into poetry and rhythm is your volley, your use of metaphors and symbolism is your overhead, and your deep understanding of the sport is your all-important first serve. Touré writes passionately and knows tennis, but some whispered that he might have gotten into the tournament only because of affirmative action. Maybe.

“Mac, at this year’s tournament, to get into the semi­finals your writing had to be beyond incredible. Some excellent people went down in the quarters — the novelist Barry Hannah, the sportswriter Frank Deford, the incomparable Neil Amdur and the unforgettable Red Smith, for whom the award for sportswriting is named! But it’s a little understandable when you look at who was in the semis. On one side we had the No. 2 seed, John McPhee, against the wild card Vladimir Nabokov. On the other we saw the eighth seed, Martin Amis, against the No. 1 seed, David Foster Wallace.

“McPhee wrote one of the best books on tennis ever, ‘Levels of the Game,’ about the 1968 U.S. Open semi­finals, in which Arthur Ashe defeated Clark Graebner. Here’s a clip: ‘A person’s tennis game begins with his nature and background and comes out through his motor mechanisms into shot patterns and characteristics of play. If he is deliberate, he is a deliberate tennis player; and if he is flamboyant, his game probably is, too. A tight, close match unmarred by error and representative of each player’s game at its highest level will be primarily a psychological struggle.’ The book takes us inside the players’ minds and is filled with lush, rhythmic language. McPhee explores the sociopolitical undercurrents that run through the match, which takes place at an epic moment in tennis history — when pros were finally allowed to play alongside amateurs in the majors, the start of the open era, the dawn of the modern age. ‘Levels of the Game’ is an exceptional and timeless work. So it was a total shock when McPhee, despite writing a great book, lost in the semis to someone who had done just a few pages on tennis. But then again, those pages are spectacular.

“John, ‘Lolita’ is considered by some to be the greatest novel of the last century. Midway through the story, as Humbert Humbert and Dolores Haze are traveling across America, they stop to play tennis on courts by a motel. What emerges is some of the most delectable writing ever about the sport. Let’s go to the videotape: ‘My Lolita had a way of raising her bent left knee at the ample and springy start of the service cycle when there would develop and hang in the sun for a second a vital web of balance between toed foot, pristine armpit, burnished arm and far back-flung racket, as she smiled up with gleaming teeth at the small globe suspended so high in the zenith of the powerful and graceful cosmos she had created for the express purpose of falling upon it with a clean resounding crack of her golden whip. It had, that serve of hers, beauty, directness, youth, a classical purity of trajectory, and was, despite its spanking pace, fairly easy to return, having as it did no twist or sting to its long elegant hop.’ There you see imaginative descriptions of tennis’s small moments, twisted comedy and story-enriching symbolism that tells us more about Humbert, the panting predator, and Dolores, the trapped bird. The girl’s strokes appear lovely because he sees her as the most beautiful thing in the world, but those strokes are ineffectual because her wings have been clipped. Gruesomely. It’s some of the finest writing of the century — it just happens to be about tennis. But who would Nabokov and his few marvelous pages face in the finals?

“Some dreamed about seeing him face Martin Amis, since it would be so meta — largely because Amis once used tennis to compare the writing of Nabokov and James Joyce. Let’s see that now: ‘Nabokov was the more “complete” player. Joyce seemed to be cruising about on all surfaces at once, and maddeningly indulged his trick shots on high-pressure points — his drop smash, his sidespun half-volley lob. Nabokov just went out there and did the business, all litheness, power and touch.’ I think Nabokov had his own large coterie of trick shots — the man invented new shots constantly — and Amis’s work on tennis is as imaginative, insightful and intelligent as anyone’s. But alas, that dream date with Amis was not to be, because the British novelist got steamrolled by the monster of this sport. David! Foster! Wallace!

“John, here’s a guy with a huge vocabulary, a deep knowledge of science, a postmodern command of linguistics and an immense passion for tennis, a sport he grew up playing seriously. He brings all that to the table when he writes about tennis, which he once described as ‘billiards with balls that won’t hold still. It is chess on the run. It is to artillery and airstrikes what football is to infantry and attrition.’ In the finals, D. F. W. crushed Nabokov and reaffirmed his status as the greatest tennis writer ever. Just look at this clip : ‘Roger Federer is showing that the speed and strength of today’s pro game are merely its skeleton, not its flesh. He has, figuratively and literally, re-embodied men’s tennis, and for the first time in years the game’s future is unpredictable. You should have seen, on the grounds’ outside courts, the variegated ballet that was this year’s Junior Wimbledon. Drop volleys and mixed spins, off-speed serves, gambits planned three shots ahead — all as well as the standard-issue grunts and booming balls. Whether anything like a nascent Federer was here among these juniors can’t be known, of course. Genius is not replicable. Inspiration, though, is contagious, and multiform — and even just to see, close up, power and aggression made vulnerable to beauty is to feel inspired and (in a fleeting, mortal way) reconciled.’ That is awe-inspiring stuff, Mac. That’s the Federer of tennis writing, writing about the Federer of tennis playing. Giving you an in-depth look into the game’s soul and a glimpse at its possible future and even a sense of how it feels to be inside high-level tennis, where multiple calculations on the level of advanced geometry are happening every moment that the ball’s in play.

“Well, that’s all from here. Thanks for watching the Intertemporal Tennis Writers Classic. Here’s hoping all your serves are aces and your metaphors are unmixed. For Johnny Mac, this is Jim Smith signing off.”

Touré’s new book, “Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?,” will be published in September. He was once ranked No. 1 in the men’s division of the American Tennis Association.

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Tennis and Writers

In this brief caesura before the start of the men’s semifinals, I’d like to consider the question of how to write about tennis. John Updike once observed that golf lends itself “oddly well” to being written about. I’m not sure tennis does. Most writers have difficulty avoiding that handful of ready-made expressions to describe the game in action: laser-like backhands; wafting underspins; rocketing volleys and pounding serves. I’ve probably used most of these in this blog. The best tennis writing provides a passable simulacrum of actually watching, or playing, the game. John McPhee’s “Levels of the Game” is sports journalism that utterly transcends the genre. Published initially in 1969, in The New Yorker , it describes, almost point for point, a match between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner. Rather than focus purely on what he saw, McPhee got the two players to watch a video replay of the encounter and to describe what was going on in their heads at each moment. McPhee also folds in the backgrounds of both players—one black, one white; one Democrat, one Republican; one poor, one privileged—and the result is an essay that not only reveals, better than anything before or since, the deep connections between how someone plays tennis and who he fundamentally is but also illuminates the condition of the United States at that turbulent time. Here are the opening sentences:

Arthur Ashe, his feet apart, his knees slightly bent, lifts a tennis ball into the air. The toss is high and forward. If the ball were allowed to drop, it would, in Ashe’s words, “make a parabola and drop to the grass three feet in front of the baseline.” He has practiced tossing a ball just so thousands of times. But he is going to hit this one. His feet draw together. His body straightens and tilts forward far beyond the point of balance. He is falling.

In a 1972 piece about Wimbledon that McPhee published in Playboy , he writes about Rod Laver, who dominated the game then as Roger Federer does today. The following puts me in mind of Federer who, even when he has a match well in hand, will run down anything:

Laver is so far ahead that the match has long since become an exhibition. Nonetheless, he plays every point as if it were vital. He digs for gets. He sends up topspin lobs. He sprints and dives for Alexander’s smashes. He punches volleys toward the corners and, when they miss, he winces. He is not playing against Alexander. He is playing against perfection.

The British novelist Martin Amis is a fanatical tennis player and has worked the sport into a number of his novels, including “Money” and “The Information.” He also writes amusingly about the sport in an essay, “Tennis: The Women’s Game,” published first in Vogue , in 1988, and reprinted in his book “Visiting Mrs. Nabokov.” In that piece, Amis argues that the women’s game was at that time more compelling than the men’s. “The men have entrained a power struggle of outsize athleticism, machismo and foul temper. It’s all rat-a-tat-tat , or rat-a-tat , or, on fast courts, simply rat ”— aces. He also refers to Gabriela Sabatini as “this bronzed hallucination of fluency and youth.”

Back in 1995, when I was a reporter for Rolling Stone , I was trying to get Amis to agree to being profiled. We met for coffee at the Royalton Hotel, in midtown Manhattan. I seemed to be making progress, but he had not committed. Knowing of his tennis addiction, I mentioned that I play—not strictly true at the time; I’d given up the sport in frustration and shame. Amis’s eyes instantly kindled and he leaned forward, fully engaged for the first time that afternoon. “You play?” he rapped out. “Well, we’ll have to do the story. You come to London and we’ll play at my club.” He was practically digging out his cell phone to book a court. One look into Amis’s blazing eyes—I’ve seen that look before, and it’s always a precursor to my losing 6-0, 6-0—and I knew that I must back out not only of the game but of the story. Which I did.

Speaking of Mrs. Nabokov, it was her husband, Vladimir, who, for my money, wrote the best description of tennis anywhere. This is from “Lolita,” whose heroine proved a natural on the court:

She would wait and relax for a bar or two of white-lined time before going into the act of serving, and often bounced the ball once or twice, or pawed the ground a little, always at ease, always rather vague about the score….The exquisite clarity of all her movements had its auditory counterpart in the pure ringing sound of her every stroke. The ball when it entered her aura of control became somehow whiter, its resilience somehow richer, and the instrument of precision she used upon it seemed inordinately prehensile and deliberate at the moment of clinging contact.

Nabokov was a fine tennis player, and was not averse to using the game as a metaphor for writing itself—a solitary activity involving precision, strategy, and foresight. Once, when an interviewer persisted in drawing comparisons between Nabokov and Joyce, he replied, “Oh, yes, let people compare me to Joyce by all means, but my English is patball to Joyce’s champion game.”

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Report shows tennis night matches lead to increased injury risk

• Senior writer for ESPN.com
• Certified orthopedic clinical specialist and strength and conditioning specialist
• Clinician, author and teacher
• D'Arcy Maine

Aryna Sabalenka , the eventual 2024 US Open champion, took the court for her third-round match against Ekaterina Alexandrova on Arthur Ashe Stadium at 12:08 a.m. It was the latest-ever start for a match at the US Open.

Two days later, in the round of 16, Zheng Qinwen and Donna Vekic left the court on Ashe at 2:15 a.m. in what was the latest finish for a women's match at the tournament.

Those late starts have a direct effect on the possibility of being injured, according to a recent report compiled by the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) and shared with ESPN. It indicated a sizable increase in injury risk for players participating in night matches compared to those played earlier in the day.

According to the PTPA report, which used data from Grand Slam events taking place from April 2018 through May 2024, as the percentage of night matches (starting after 7 p.m.) increased, the injury rate also increased from 4.6% to 5.2%.

PTPA medical director Dr. Robby Sikka, who led the team that conducted the data analysis, said odds ratios were calculated that indicated a player is 25% more likely to be injured during a match played at night.

And yet, night matches at major tournaments remain on the rise -- going from a little under 7% of matches to more than 11%, according to the study. That number is expected to increase to more than 15% once data from this year's US Open is included, Sikka told ESPN.

Players have routinely expressed concerns about how playing later matches impacts their health and performance.

Coco Gauff , the 2023 US Open champion and current world No. 6, called post-midnight finishes "not healthy" at the French Open in June. Novak Djokovic , the 24-time major champion and co-founder of the PTPA, said he struggles with late-night matches at this stage of his career.

"I don't think that aging helps really staying so late and playing very late," Djokovic, 37, said after his first-round match at the US Open, which was the second night match on Ashe. "I can feel, you know, my batteries are low now. I'm shutting down."

Djokovic's third-round match at the French Open this summer -- a five-set win over Lorenzo Musetti -- ended at 3:06 a.m. and was the latest finish in tournament history. He tore the meniscus in his right knee during his next match and withdrew ahead of the quarterfinals and underwent surgery.

Daria Kasatkina , currently No. 13 in the world, told ESPN that the night doesn't end when the match is over.

"You cannot go to sleep straight away ... you have some interviews straight after, you then have to do stretch, ice bath recovery, eat, then mandatory media, [such as] a press conference or whatever you will be requested to do," she said.

Kasatkina pointed out that each athlete has his or her own recovery/rehab routine. The athlete then has to make the trip back to the hotel which, depending on the tournament, can take an additional 30 minutes or more.

Kasatkina has experience with late matches. In August 2023, she played Elena Rybakina in a Canadian Open match that started at 11:27 p.m. They finished nearly 3½ hours later at 2:57 a.m.

"You're destroyed," Kasatkina said of late matches. "You spend a lot of emotion, a lot of physical energy."

To compound the effect, scheduling does not always take when a previous match ends into account.

"You might play first the day after you play last," Kasatkina said.

PTPA executive director Ahmad Nassar noted the athletes' frustration around increasingly late start times and turned to Sikka to capture their concerns with objective data.

"[Dr. Sikka] was a guy that we knew through baseball and football and basketball and we said, 'Hey, would you be interested in kind of looking at some of these issues and working with us on this?'"

The results, while not particularly surprising, provided quantifiable metrics to support what the athletes were reporting from personal experience.

"It's one thing to grumble, 'I don't like late-night matches,' Nassar said. "It's much different to say, here's some real data, 25% greater chance of injury. ... And then, you know, you kind of go to what do you do about it?"

The ATP, which runs men's tennis worldwide, declined to comment for this story. A representative shared the organization's joint press release with the WTA from January explaining changes both tours had made to alleviate late-night matches.

In the release, which acknowledged how such late starts and finishes were "negatively impacting players and fans," it stated various regulations for tour events, including the banning of matches starting after 11 p.m. (unless approved by a tour supervisor), the moving of matches to an alternate court if not started by 10:30 p.m. and the disallowing of night sessions to begin after 7:30 p.m. ET.

Those changes went into effect at the start of the 2024 season. Amy Binder, the WTA's senior vice president of global communications, noted that as of Sept. 10, there has been just one instance when a match at a WTA event started after 11 p.m. since the change went into effect and it was "in full consultation and agreement with the competing athletes."

The four Grand Slam events operate independently from the tours, however, and do not need to abide by the same regulations. Wimbledon has had a curfew of 11 p.m. in place since it added the roof to Centre Court in 2009 in an agreement with local officials. The US Open implemented its own policy related to night matches this year. If the second night match on Arthur Ashe Stadium or Louis Armstrong Stadium had not started by 11:15 p.m., the match could have been moved to another court.

"The referee will have the discretion to move the match," tournament director Stacey Allaster said in a pre-event media briefing in August. "That's going to depend on many variables, like do we have the broadcast team ready, do we have a ball crew, so forth."

But Sabalenka and Alexandrova took the court well after 11:15 p.m. Nassar said both players were consulted and said they wanted to remain on Ashe. But Nassar doesn't believe it should have come down to the players making the call.

"This might not be the most popular opinion, but you don't ask a player in the NFL, 'Oh, how do you feel? You want to stick it out even if we think you have a concussion?' No, man, the rule is you gotta go," Nassar said. "That's part of changing the culture and I know players want to play on certain courts at certain tournaments, that's natural. But [we're at] the point where the culture is actually dangerous. Not just annoying, but dangerous."

Player concerns are not strictly limited to late-night match starts. Issues such as mandatory tournament demands, the transition of several of the 1000-level events from one week to two, and the number of matches being played are all areas of focus.

"The tournaments are longer, the draws are bigger. Recovery time is less," said Kasatkina.

"Plus the travel is increasing because we have more tournaments. We have to travel from one coast to another, from one time zone to another. Now we don't have much time for preparations. We cannot do much practice blocks. We can't get enough rest. I mean, you can, but you have to sacrifice some of the tournaments. Like you always have to make a choice."

There are also the surface changes that accompany different venues factoring into the equation for players.

Hubert Hurkacz , currently ranked No. 8, said constantly changing surfaces is tough on players. He noted that was especially true this year with the addition of the Olympic Games, played on clay, following the end of the grass season and right before the start of the summer hard-court portion of the schedule.

"Let's say you're going to the Olympics, you're practicing for a week on clay or getting ready, your body's ready to go," Hurkacz told ESPN. "Then you play a good tournament and then the next day you're on the flight say to Montreal, and you're playing on a different surface, different conditions on hard court, [where] the sliding is so much different. ... Ultimately it's really difficult without having proper preparation."

Sikka notes the PTPA is looking to learn from other sports leagues and their approaches to data analytics as a means of effecting change.

"How did the NFL approach their concussion data?" he said. "If baseball has all these arm and elbow injuries and they're worried about pitch counts, should we have a serve count?"

He noted the power era of tennis, when higher spin rates and serve velocities appear to correlate with chances of winning. But is there an injury cost? The answer, Sikka believes, lies in the data.

"No data is perfect," he said. "But these are trends that are pretty indisputable. And now there's a measurable thing that if we want to intervene, we've got a baseline for comparison."

Sikka also believes the solutions lie in the PTPA, the tours and the Slams working together towards a common goal of optimizing player health and performance.

"We're not here to put people down," Sikka said, "We're not here to rabble-rouse. We're here to improve the quality of care for a population."

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Tennis — The Impact that Being in a Tennis Team Had in My Life

The Impact that Being in a Tennis Team Had in My Life

• Categories: Tennis

About this sample

Words: 2017 |

11 min read

Published: Oct 2, 2018

Words: 2017 | Pages: 4 | 11 min read

Works Cited

• Amato, A. (2017). The Importance of Teamwork in Tennis. International Journal of Tennis Science, 3(1), 21-31.
• Coakley, J. (2009). Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
• Hickey, C. (2015). The Impact of Team Sports on Social Inclusion and Personal Development: A Literature Review. Sport Northern Ireland.
• Lee, J., & Choi, Y. (2013). The Relationship between Teamwork and Player Performance in Tennis. Journal of Human Kinetics, 38(1), 133-139.
• Lopez, M. (2018). The Benefits of Joining a Tennis Team. Tennis Life Magazine. Retrieved from https://tennis-life.net/the-benefits-of-joining-a-tennis-team/
• Meek, G., & Amery, R. (2016). The Role of Teamwork in Building Successful Organizations: A Comparative Study of the Tennis and Construction Industries. Team Performance Management, 22(3/4), 178-193.
• Moran, A., & Toner, J. (2019). Benefits of Playing Tennis for Mental Health and Well-Being. Sport and Exercise Psychology Review, 15(1), 8-16.
• Murray, M. (2014). The Benefits of Playing Tennis for Physical Health. Sports Medicine Research Institute, 22(2), 120-130.
• Smith, A., & Westerbeek, H. (2015). Sport Business in the Global Marketplace. Palgrave Macmillan.
• White, A., & Duda, J. (2009). The Benefits of Participation in Team Sports for Youth: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 3(3), 155-164.

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