RESEARCH ARTICLE


Effects of a Tennis Match on Perceived Fatigue, Jump and Sprint Performances on Recreational Players



Stefano Amatori1, Erica Gobbi1, *, Giorgia Moriondo2, Marco Gervasi1, Davide Sisti1, Marco B.L. Rocchi1, Fabrizio Perroni1
1 Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, 61029 (PU) Urbino, Italy
2 Ronchiverdi Sport & Business Club, 10133 (TO) Torino, Italy


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Creative Commons License
© 2020 Amatori et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, 61029 (PU) Urbino, Italy; Tel: +39-0722-304877; E-mail: erica.gobbi@uniurb.it


Abstract

Background:

Tennis is an intermittent sport, characterized by hundreds of repetitive explosive efforts, including accelerations, and jumps. A single match can last up to 5 hours and players are called to play several matches often separated by less than 48h of recovery.

Objective:

The study aimed to investigate the effects of a standardized tennis match on perceived fatigue and jump and sprint performances on a group of recreational tennis players and to observe if such variables were affected by residual effects of fatigue 24 hours after the match.

Methods:

Twelve recreational tennis players performed a 120 min match. Before, immediately after and 24h after the match, players completed a set of three countermovement jumps, three 10m sprints, and reported their perception of general fatigue.

Results:

Significant differences between the three conditions have been found for the perceived fatigue: indeed fatigue was higher both in the immediate post (F(1,10)= 54.422, η2 = 0.845, p<0.001) and 24h post-match (F(1,10)= 10.947, η2 = 0.523, p=0.08), with respect to the pre-match condition. No significant differences were detected in the other variables.

Conclusion:

During a tournament, the performance of tennis players may be weakened and the recovery prejudiced. To identify fluctuations of and factors linked to fatigue may help tennis practitioners to apply adequate recovery strategies with athletes, limiting performance decrements within a tournament, and indirectly preventing injuries.

Keywords: Fatigue, Fitlight, Performance, Post-match, Recovery, Sprint, Tennis.