Is Tennis the Hardest Sport in the World?

Opinion

Is Tennis the Hardest Sport in the World?

To be honest, the question doesn’t do the sport any favors.

“Is tennis the hardest sport in the world?” feels like a trap—either you’re disrespecting LeBron James other athletes, or you’re underselling just how outrageous this game actually is.

So let’s skip the yes/no binary and try a better question: What makes professional tennis so insanely challenging?

Let’s start with the conditions. They change every single week. One tournament you’re playing in tropical humidity at sea level in Australia. The next, you're on lightning-fast hard courts in the Dubai desert. But it’s not just this one switch—it’s the whole calendar. Tennis runs 11 months a year, across every continent (minus Antarctica for the know-it-alls) and climate zone known to man. You’re constantly battling jet lag, hopping time zones, adjusting to new altitudes and court speeds, and trying to remember how to say “chicken and rice please” in seven languages.

And through all of that—you need to produce your best tennis. Every week. Because if you don’t, you’re out of the tournament, trying to find the next flight to Slovenia without a layover.

Then there’s the surface roulette. Other sports have consistency: basketball is always played on hardwood, soccer is always on grass. Tennis? You start the year on hard courts, then go to clay, then grass, then back to hard, and then indoor hard. The game itself changes constantly. Points are longer on clay, shorter on grass, and completely unpredictable in cities like Madrid, where the altitude makes everything feel like you're hitting with helium.

Each surface requires a different skill set—and a different pair of shoes. You can’t just master one style. If you want to be among the best in the world, you have to know how to hit through a slick grass court, how to slide into a forehand on red clay, and how to adjust your timing when the ball bounces chest-high in Indian Wells. And you better make all those changes on the fly.

And unlike most sports, tennis doesn’t let you outsource any part of the job. You can’t get subbed out. You can’t really specialize (Isner had a pretty nice forehand). There’s no coach on the sidelines drawing up plays, and no teammate to cover for your off days. You’ve got to serve, return, rally, volley, defend, attack, dig deep, and figure it out yourself. If you’re cramping at 5-all in the third set, no one’s calling a timeout. You either win the next two games or you lose.

That’s what makes tennis so punishing. Not because the athletes are necessarily stronger, faster, or more explosive than athletes in other sports—but because the sport asks more of them, more often, with less room for error. Physically, emotionally, logistically—it’s all on the player. Every week. For 11 months.

And yes, other sports have their own monsters. Rugby players get flattened for a living. MMA fighters train for war. NFL linemen spend more time in ice baths than actual beds. Every elite sport has its grind.

But tennis is different in its relentlessness. It’s not just a matter of pushing your body to its limit—it's doing it alone, with no substitutions, while jet-lagged, altitude-confused, and constantly asked to adapt. Greatness in this sport isn’t just about talent. It’s about being durable, flexible, stubborn, and slightly insane.

So is tennis the hardest sport in the world?

We’ll leave that for bar arguments between pledge brothers and podcast clickbait. But just know this: tennis players are god damn warriors.

Trivia

This player holds the record for most aces hit in a single season. Who was it?

A. John Isner

B. Ivo Karlovic

C. Reilly Opelka

D. Goran Ivanisevic

Find out at the bottom!

Meet the Player

Ugo Humbert

From: Metz, France 🇫🇷

Best Slam Result: 4th Round (Wimbledon)

Career High Ranking: 13 (April 2024)

Fun Fact: Each time he wins a title, he plays the Amelie Poulain theme song on the piano.

Game Analysis: The French bean pole is an aggressive baseliner, with atypically flat groundstrokes for a lefty. With his ability to take balls on the rise and finish at the net, he’s got a scary good game on grass and indoor hard court. However, taking the ball so early sometimes leaves him out of position against players who redirect pace well.

Career Prediction: The 26 year old will remain a top 50 player for a long time. On his favored surfaces, he can be a nightmare for anyone. But with such a high risk game, it’s hard to see him consistently beating the top guys and cracking the top 10.

US Open

Mixed Doubles Mania

Raducanu & Alcaraz as doubles partners?! 🤭 I didn’t think the US Open could get more romantic lit, but I clearly need to think bigger. Because this year, the tournament is debuting a revamped Mixed Doubles event, starring the biggest names in our sport! The event will take place during US Open fan week (meaning it’s FREE), all matches will be played on stadium courts, and will feature some insanely high level tennis. Learn more here, and I’ll see you in NY 🗽

I Need Your Help!

Hey Gorgeous - my goal this year is to get to 1,000 subscribers. Right now we’re at 673! Could you help me out by encouraging one person in your life to subscribe? It would mean a ton 🙌🏼

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Crazy Stat

Alcaraz won Queens on Sunday, his fourth grass court title. With the win, he is now 29-3 on grass, which means he has more titles on grass than he has losses on the surface. Ridiculous performance after a bender in Ibiza 😳

Quote of the Day

From an interview with Darren Cahill on Sinner’s performance in the Roland Garros final. The interview is so good that I’ve listened to it three times. Highly recommend.

Answer

D. The OG serve bot Goran Ivanisevic holds the record for most aces in a single season, with 1,477 in 1996.

Bonus Ace Stat: Milos Raonic holds the record for most aces hit in a best-of-three set match with 47. That’s almost 12 games’ worth of aces 😳