Tennis is a harder sport than meets the eye

Junior+Tobias+Yoder+forehands+the+ball

Sid Tandel

Junior Tobias Yoder forehands the ball

Whenever I tell people I play tennis, I normally get responses such as, “Why tennis?” and “Why do you play tennis when there are much more challenging sports?” When people ask questions such as these, I don’t really know what to say without trying to smack them, so I respond with “tennis is a much harder sport than you think.”

Unlike many other sports, tennis is a one-on-one sport unless you’re playing doubles. When you’re on the court alone, you can’t be dependent upon other players to help you out compared to basketball where there are five players working together. Additionally, in almost all other team sports, there are substitutions. However, in tennis you’re stuck on the court for ten games.

People think tennis is hitting a ball over the net without thinking much about it. Realistically, tennis is playing against an opponent you’ve never met before and that player is hitting the ball as accurately as they can as far away from you as possible.

Hitting shots consistently is not as easy as it looks. Of course anybody can hit the ball over the net fairly consistently, but to hit fast shots as far away from your opponent as possible is not easy.

You have to keep a healthy mindset on your own throughout a match. Tennis is a solo sport, so when you lose a point or lose a game, you can get annoyed or angry. With other sports this is apparent through a teammate’s attitude and body language and you can help them get through the game. With tennis, you’re by yourself and have to keep cool without getting annoyed by small mistakes.

Tennis requires constant and fast decision making. In a tennis match, your opponent will give you a small time window to prepare and line up your shot. Points in tennis go by fast and every shot is a new decision that can impact that point and game.

Tennis has many minor yet significant components such as being a one-on-one sport, hitting consistent shots and keeping a positive mindset, making it one of the hardest sports.