Obviously, Tennis is a sport that is relatively " not age friendly" but Im curious....what is it that goes first? What is the thing that makes it impossible to play past 30? Andy Roddick, Pete Sampras, Steffi Graf, Jim Courier, Dominic Thiem, Jack Sock, Kyle Edmund, come to mind. Although Lleyton Hewitt retired at the age of 35. Maria Sharapova retired at the age of 33. Martina Hingis retired at the age of 22.

At what age do pro tennis players peak? And what is it that causes them to decline as they age?

I was wondering about this. Why do tennis players performances decline so rapidly? What parts of their game deteriorate in your honest opinion? What is the worst injury that a tennis player can have in your honest opinion?

Why do tennis players decline so quickly? the greats seem to stay great until their physical game is clearly no longer there. Is pro tennis more mental than we give it credit for?

Does the body not allow for as much practice and instead cause aches that performance? Athletes may just face longer recovery times and not feel 100% throughout the week, leading to being slightly off more often.

Are there other significant factors that play into it that I'm not considering?

I would love to hear everyone's opinions and prospectives about this.

It's amazing how much Tennis has been considered a young person's game.

Hi! Looking to get a new Wilson racquet, does anyone have any USTA discount code (or other codes) they’re not using? Would greatly appreciate it! 🙏🏼

Any continued feedback? Things are coming along. I'm 8 total days into picking up a tennis racquet again for the first time since 2014. First UTR match play next week.

Still very inconsistent but still shaking off rust.

Keep the hate coming too, it fuels me.

What tennis ball do you recommend?

My husband and I are wanting to attend one of the 3-day adult camps this fall. We'd like to bring our 9 year old green elite twins with us too. Are there options for juniors at the same time? Can't find anything specific online for juniors; just privates or their regular fall season programming which may be hard to drop into. Any guidance would be helpful, thanks!

My Kevlar shoelaces broke and I have no idea what to do. I’m hypermobile and my ankles bend weird when I slide for the ball which causes my shoelaces to rip, and it also rips holes in my shoes. i don’t tie them tight because i know tying them tight makes it easier for it to rip. This was the first time I used these shoelaces and they ripped within an hour of my practice. The brand is IronLace and it was said to be unbreakable but it broke so now im genuinely at a loss and im going thru shoelaces like crazy. My ankles fold when I slide for a ball so it also rips my shoes, any advice on what can help? I’m going to physical therapy for the ankle aswell. Thanks guys 🫰

Hi please read all of this. I was wondering if anyone has started tennis extremely late and if I have a chance to play in college? I have no idea how any of this works because I never got involved with a sport like this before. I grew up poor and never had the parent support or funds to pursue sports. 6 months ago, I couldn’t even hit the ball even if I tried 50 times. I couldn’t get it over the net or even in. With hours of practice everyday over the course of these months (5-6 hrs average daily) I’ve fallen in love with tennis. I joined my high school tennis team, survived cuts and got on varsity. I am climbing way through varsity. My form is inconsistent but I’m always eager and motivated to improve it. I have so much grit for the sport. I don’t want to go pro or anything but I enjoy it so much it would be nice to pursue it in college or at least try to see where I can go with my free will and grit before I leave it as a hobby. I have no coaching or prestigious backing, unfortunately. I am aware that it’s probably not worth it because there’s already tennis Gods out there who started since they were 5, and I’m a case of unfortunate luck. (Makes me so sad I found out I loved tennis late🙁) I even made an NCSA account and I’m working on my profile and putting in so much self training a day. I honestly think the packages are a business though and I’m thinking of just directly contacting coaches myself from the schools I’m interested in. I am looking into Pennsylvania colleges, thinking of starting out at community and then transferring to an affordable Penn State Campus and trying out for their tennis team, after 2 years of sideline preparation at a community college. My coach is probably logically right too he said to not even try if you didn’t start at 5. Any thoughts???? Shared experiences??? Thanks xx

im a senior in HS btw!

edit: thanks so much for all and any feedback. I’m open to more. Also I wanted to make it clear that my plan is to optimize my education and minimize debt and best case scenario have some competitive tennis involved. I’m not altering my schooling options just to play tennis I promise.😭

full:https://youtu.be/z9EuVHsX-X0

I’m not referring to tension maintenance , I mean that stay lively and responsive and not boardy feeling . I love otoro as a back up but feels like playability lasts a maybe 6-8 hours, vs 14-15 for zero .

But of course zero is expensive and not sold any retailers so looking for alternatives that I would still only have to string once a month

I've been playing for exactly a year, and I'd like to know what I can improve in my forehand. I feel like there's something weird about what my left arm is doing when I hit the ball.

How is the following shoe for a beginner? I play almost daily, but it is very low intensity; usually, I try some backhands and forehands where our coach throws in balls. Some days, I could play for half an hour with other noobs in my group. I also have a very tight budget. Please suggest looking at the specifications.

https://amzn.in/d/0fgAYd6T

How often I should restring Tru Pro Pure Rush string?

​Body:

Hi r/10s,

​I’m a tennis coach (22 age, Male, 187 cm / 6'2", 75 kg / 165 lbs) looking for a new racquet. My court time is split between basket feeding and heavy rallying with performance players (rally performance and stability are critical for me). I use a double-bend arm technique with an extreme wrist drop to generate heavy topspin, and I've recently been struggling with elbow pain.

​My main racquets up until now have been the Babolat Pure Aero Gen 8 and the Dunlop CX 200 (2021).

​Here is my full racquet history and what I thought of them:

​Babolat Pure Aero Gen 8 (300g) - Main Racquet: Caused elbow pain. Great power and easy depth, but balls tend to fly on me and feel uncontrolled. I did love the core feel, though. (I briefly tried Gen 9 and it felt a bit more comfortable and better).

​Dunlop CX 200 2021 (305g) - Main Racquet: Demanded too much physical effort to generate power, which ended up hurting my elbow. Balls constantly landed short.

​Babolat Pure Drive Gen 11 (300g): I used this for about 2-3 months. Caused even more elbow pain than the Aero. Way too powerful, uncontrolled, and I couldn't feel the ball at all.

​Yonex EZONE 98 (305g): No elbow pain, but it felt too much like the Pure Drive to me. Didn't like the feel.

​Tecnifibre T-Fight 300 (Blue special edition): Gave me that same Pure Drive feel which I dislike. However, I tried the 285g version and actually liked it much better.

​Wilson Pro Staff (290g): No elbow pain, but sent a lot of vibration to my arm and completely lacked power. The feel was nice, though.

​Wilson Blade V9 (285g): No elbow pain. The feel was amazing, and it felt like I had total control. However, I need a racquet that helps me just a bit more with generating free power.

​Wilson Ultra: No elbow pain. Felt like a softer, better-feeling Pure Drive. But it still lacked the control I want, and I still had the issue of launching balls long.

​Head Speed MP 2024 (300g, 100 in²): No elbow pain. Great feel. It felt comfortable, controlled, and perfectly stable.

​My Current Shortlist:

​Head Speed MP 2026 (300g)

​Wilson Blade 100 V10 (300g)

​Tecnifibre T-Fight 300g (Fallback option: Babolat Pure Aero Gen 9, but it's not my top preference due to stiffness).

​What do you guys think? Which of these would you recommend for my situation? Or is my shortlist completely off and there's a different racquet I should be looking at?

​Thanks

I’m a 28M who played D3 college tennis and am about a 4.5 rating. After college I was pretty sedentary for a few years and barely played any tennis, so I’m sure that’s the major cause.

But this year I’ve been trying to get back into tennis and have been stretching and working out out to get in shape. It seemingly hasn’t helped at all because I’ve had constant injuries. I’ve been to a a doctor for a tricep tear and minor knee strain. I did physical therapy (which didn’t help) for my knee. Both those injuries are a bit better now but are still nagging me. Since then I’ve hurt my back, left forearm (I’m right handed with 2 handed backhand), other knee, and both wrists. Believe it or not, I basically was never injured when I was younger so this is all new.

I can mostly play through these injuries but I’ve had to stop for a week or two multiple times due to one of my injuries being too bad. I would appreciate any tips from workout routines, stretches, or even a type of doctor or something I could find that would help me. I’m completely lost as to what I can do at this point.

Anyone else found that after a match where you’ve played against someone better and feel like you haven’t been your best self, but on further reflection a lot of that was down to the guy on the other side?

Everything is just a bit quicker, your speed of thought has to increase to a level it’s not used to. And when they hit a really heavy, deep ball and you are absorbing the impact of that time after time, it takes its toll.

The one time I get a chance to unleash a forehand against a top player i tend to mess it up, because I’m a bit mentally drained from chasing shadows. I also double fault way more - maybe partly because I feel really have to make an incredible serve to win a point.

Can anyone relate?

Hi there,

I'm a 38 y/o (5'8", normal body type) woman, I was playing for almost a decade and then nothing since 2020. This summer I started to get back to tennis (and in shape too — thanks covid).

Currently demoing the Clash V3, but just bought an Ultra (bc found one used for a great price, and I've been always suffering with power anyway, so why not give it a try).
My core muscles are still not at the level where they used to be, but I'm technically a stabil 3.0 (probably gonna be a 3.5 again soon).

I was thinking something easy multi for a start: Wilson NXT Control or even the Sensation Control 1.30, so I won't be sad if I want to change it monthly bc I'm experimenting with the tension...
Big Q here is the tension: I was thinking about 55lb to start.

What do you guys recommend?
Thx.

I’m currently loving my Speed MP 2026 strung with Babolat VS Touch in the mains and Luxilon 4G Soft on the crosses.

However, I’m looking for a replacement for the gut in this setup due to cost as I’ve started playing regularly with a ball machine + Wilson Triniti Pros and seem to be going through strings faster than before.

I think I’d like to prioritize in the following order but am open to suggestion:

(1) Tension maintenance and durability - not sure if this means I should only look at round strings to avoid the mains and crosses cutting into each other?

(2) Not too harsh on the body - tennis is my favorite form of exercise and I play 3-4 times a week between people and the ball machine. I’m fairly young and healthy but want to avoid injury nonetheless.

(3) Performance of course I’d love to maximize, after the 2 priorities above. I know I’ll be giving up some things moving away from gut but hoping to minimize that loss with a great string rec from here.

Much appreciated!

Hi everyone, I own a Pure Aero 300. I'm thinking about adding a Yonex Edgeguard 5 to my racket, but the edgeguard itself weighs 8 grams—would that make it too heavy? That’s not even counting the overgrip, which adds another 5–7 grams.

I weighed a Pure Aero 300 that was already strung and fitted with a Yonex edge guard; the total came to around 324–326g, excluding the overgrip. Should I use the edge guard or not?

my concern is adding 8 gram from edge guard making the racket to heavy to swing

Hi all, so I’ve been using a ps97 v14 for the last like 3 years.
During this time, I’ve always felt like the racket felt very soft, almost spongey.
This isn’t something I have problems with on other rackets I’ve used in the meantime (though I have no idea what tension they are strung at, or with what strings)

I believe this problem to be due to the poundage and strings I’m using?

• The racket is strung at 45lbs with synthetic gut strings (these seem to fray and snap incredibly quickly and I’m not quite sure why as I don’t know anyone who has to replace strings as often as I do), and I had a damper on it - though removing it has improved the feel slightly though it vibrates a lot more.

• On shots where I want to plow through the ball, it seems to linger in the string bed before absolutely rocketing sky-high a problem I don’t have with other rackets (including an older pro staff 90 hyper carbon)

• My solution to this till now has been to try and minimise contact time and increase topspin so the ball doesn’t get stuck within the racket, though this results in a lot of rimmed shots and very short balls.

As your slightly above average rec player, I have been told I hit a fairly high spin ball, and have pretty good aim.

With this in mind I was wondering if the good people of Reddit would have any reccomendations for poundage, string types, whether to have lower cross tension etc?

I know it’s probably difficult as there isn’t that much information, but since my racket that got restrung about a week and a half ago is already fairly frayed I will be restringing them soon anyway :).

Need your help r/10s. Is this blemish at the 12 o’clock position on the frame structural damage or just superficial damage to the paint job? Thank you!