Tennis Players Are Not Athletes!!! Are You Kidding Me?

Here I am sitting in a sports bar last night watching a football game and next to me were two men who were deep into a conversation about which are the better athletes, football, basketball, or baseball players? After about fifteen minutes of eavesdropping on their conversation and hearing the same old arguments… NBA players can’t take the contact that is associated with the NFL and no NFL player can play 60+ nights a season like the NBA does… Enough was enough, I had to throw out the comment for argument sake, what about professional tennis players? Shouldn't they be considered?

One guy looked at me like I was a freak and the other guy started to laugh. I saw this reaction as an invitation to get my point across. My first comment, tell me what your NBA and NFL players are doing in the off-season. Instantly they went into weight training, and endurance training, and hill work. As I started to laugh, the two men said what are tennis players doing in the off season? My point exactly, there isn't an off season for tennis players! At this point I had the two guys quiet and listening. Unlike football and basketball, the pro tennis player is playing in four major slams and starting in February and wrapping up in September. Not to mention the indoor season that follows the US Open and the other tournaments leading up to the slams so that they can stay on top of their games. I went on to talk about the 5+ hour match between Roger and Andy this past year at Wimbledon and made reference that most players in a NFL game are only seeing on average about 60-70 plays per game which might translates into roughly 10 minutes of actual playing time. Let’s go back and visit that endurance comment again please!

After about 30 minutes of conversation back and fourth, I had convinced the two guys of my point of view. I’m not saying that professional tennis players are better athletes than those players in the NBA and NFL, but I’m saying that they are world class athletes and should be given the recognition that they deserve. Too often I believe that tennis players are over looked as world class athletes when in fact they are some of the best!

Tracy Lynch
Wholesale Accounts Manager
Lee Tennis Court Products