Not too way back, tennis was seen as extra of a pastime than a sport — an elitist pursuit for the privileged few. That status was bolstered by the assumption that tennis gamers weren’t as athletic as basketball or soccer gamers, who endure a bodily toll on a nightly foundation.
The arrival of explosive athletes like Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams helped change that notion. Skeptics started to acknowledge that though tennis lacks bodily contact, it topics gamers to a take a look at of endurance and psychological resilience that epitomizes the best degree of competitors.
Look no additional than the occasions at Court docket Philippe-Chatrier this previous Sunday. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner battled for five hours and 29 minutes, marking the longest French Open remaining ever and the fifth-longest match at any main within the Open Period.
That marathon of a match prompted former World No. 1 Andy Roddick to make a tall declare on his podcast.
“I feel tennis gamers are the perfect athletes on the earth,” he declared. “5 hours and 40-something minutes on the largest levels, you evaluate this to different sports activities — an NBA sport is 48 minutes performed in air-con, the place you will have teammates, halftime and timeouts. To say one factor doesn’t suggest you are throwing shade at another person. I am celebrating and applauding one set of athletes. [Tennis] is probably the most full examination of an athlete that I can consider.”
