[WilliamsOhanian]

Is football really ahead of tennis endurance wise? Football has a set amount of time that you play (90 minutes, not including extra time) while a tennis match can potentially go on forever. There have been quite a few 5 hour plus matches in the sport, like Djokodal 2012 AO final, Fedal Rome 2006 final, Djokovic-Wawrinka AO 2013 R4 etc. The longest match in tennis (Isner-Mahut) went for like 3 days. I honestly feel like tennis players are better endurance wise because of this. Yes, they get breaks in between points, but footballers also get breaks like 15 minute halftime plus they can sub themselves out when they get tired, which you can't do in tennis. Just my opinion though.

Check the distance athletes run in football vs tennis.

 

[Andrej]

Football definitely requires more endurance than tennis. I say this from personal experience. In football you are constantly moving. In tennis you are not. The football field is way way bigger than a tennis court. You cover it all. There are more sprints required in football. At full speed. You have to jump for headers from time to time. There are also some physical battles in football. An average footballer covered 10-11 kilometers in a 90 minutes match. Nadal and Djokovic covered 6km each in the AO 2012 final.
In my view, football is at least 2 times more demanding in endurance than tennis. Probably 3 times more.

 

[NedStark]

For "real" football, it also depends on the League. Series A, for example, is slower and less physically intensive. Premier League is the opposite, OTOH.

I mean, you can see how Cristiano Ronaldo being exposed massively when moving back to United. In England, a forward can no longer just chill out in the final third to wait for balls. A forward in Premier League over the last 5 years has to press opponent defenders and actively chase after balls - which is what Salah, Mane or Jota do every second.

 

[EcuadorianWoodenCourtsFTW]

Football definitely requires more endurance than tennis. I say this from personal experience. In football you are constantly moving. In tennis you are not. The football field is way way bigger than a tennis court. You cover it all. There are more sprints required in football. At full speed. You have to jump for headers from time to time. There are also some physical battles in football. An average footballer covered 10-11 kilometers in a 90 minutes match. Nadal and Djokovic covered 6km each in the AO 2012 final.
In my view, football is at least 2 times more demanding in endurance than tennis. Probably 3 times more.

Those rankings by ESPN shouldn't be taken seriously.. Always favouring main sports played in USA.

Soccer (like most team sports) depends a lot on the position, if you're a centre half that reads the game well you can cost through matches without spending too much energy. Centre midfield you'll likely be doing a lot more short sprints. On the whole it's a more physically challenging sport than tennis but tennis generally requires more fine motor skills.

NFL is so stop and start, relative to other sports not such a demand on endurance, although very explosive. Rugby for example has similar physical demands but the game doesn't stall as much, and they don't wear protective padding, it's a more physically demanding sport than NFL, but that's the American bias in the article.

But that's the problem with ranking team sports, physical demands vary depending on position. They also vary depending on play style, obvious in tennis. Isner, Opelka, Karlovic never needed great stamina because of their game. However in wrestling and MMA there's no place to hide, you have to have great conditioning to compete at the top level.

 

[BigDonkey]

Why do you think basketball is ahead of tennis, just out of curiosity?

Primarily because of all the extra muscle they can carry and still maintain their relative quickness and agility. Skinny dudes like Medvedev and Zverev are built for tennis, but that wouldn’t transfer to other sports. Lebron James at 250 lbs would be much better suited to transfer to football or wrestling or even baseball. Tennis players might be better cyclists but I don’t cinder cyclists terribly athletic (relatively).

 

[TitanofTennis]

Football definitely requires more endurance than tennis. I say this from personal experience. In football you are constantly moving. In tennis you are not. The football field is way way bigger than a tennis court. You cover it all. There are more sprints required in football. At full speed. You have to jump for headers from time to time. There are also some physical battles in football. An average footballer covered 10-11 kilometers in a 90 minutes match. Nadal and Djokovic covered 6km each in the AO 2012 final.
In my view, football is at least 2 times more demanding in endurance than tennis. Probably 3 times more.

Hmm ok fair enough. Football does indeed have a higher score in the rankings for endurance than Tennis (7.75 to 7.25). Still though, Tennis seems to rank higher than Football overall in terms of athleticism as per the article, thanks in part to the greater power, flexibility and hand eye coordination that Tennis requires as opposed to Football, which is interesting.

 

[TitanofTennis]

Primarily because of all the extra muscle they can carry and still maintain their relative quickness and agility. Skinny dudes like Medvedev and Zverev are built for tennis, but that wouldn’t transfer to other sports. Lebron James at 250 lbs would be much better suited to transfer to football or wrestling or even baseball. Tennis players might be better cyclists but I don’t cinder cyclists terribly athletic (relatively).

Would he really be good at football? I can't imagine someone weighing 113kg being good at a high endurance sport like football.

 

[BigDonkey]

Would he really be good at football? I can't imagine someone weighing 113kg being good at a high endurance sport like football.

Sorry, American football. I don’t watch that football enough to know ideal body types.

 

[MIJB#19]

What does everyone else think?

Missed opportunity to come up with a legitimate table? I looked through the "experts", but they clearly lack the experience inside 90% of the listed sports to make a legitimate judgement. "speed skating" is just as variable as "track and field running", yet they lumped it together. And clearly it's extremely outdated, using Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones and Barry Bonds as examples says enough.

 

[162512]

MMA/Boxing > tennis > team sports.

Mma/boxing the opponent has a ton on influence what you do, one punch (etc) and its over

Tennis is a bit different because their best shot only wins a point, doesnt ko you, but makes you play really bad

Team sports call timeout and sub players when they break down, cant do that in the other sports mentioned.

Factor in the coaching between rounds (fighting) and every play in LOL team sports, they are like robots who follow orders. Thats where tennis seperates itself

 

[Roxitova]

If they didn't put tennis at the very top, it's BS.
But tennis also became so much more physical in the past 15 years.
I consider the most demanding--and i mean on the pro level, not the club player--in terms of co-ordination, endurance, cardio, strength, balance, so many factors they all have to functioning at a very high level.

An Olympic gold decathelete was once asked what was the most demanding/difficult sport--and decathalon is way up there--and he said "tennis."

 

[BaselineGod]

MMA/Boxing > tennis > team sports.

Mma/boxing the opponent has a ton on influence what you do, one punch (etc) and its over

Tennis is a bit different because their best shot only wins a point, doesnt ko you, but makes you play really bad

Team sports call timeout and sub players when they break down, cant do that in the other sports mentioned.

Factor in the coaching between rounds (fighting) and every play in LOL team sports, they are like robots who follow orders. Thats where tennis seperates itself

True.. in MMA/Boxing you are gassed and drop performance after a few minutes.. while on team sports and tennis you can go for hours..
Just lets take a look at Ngannou vs Gane match of a few days ago..

 

[kalineiskali]

Tennis players definitely deserve credit for their incredible endurance, agility, and hand-eye coordination. Nerve and mental toughness are essential parts of the game, especially in those crucial moments. Rankings can be subjective, but I believe tennis players bring unique skills to the court that make the sport exciting and challenging. I would also like to play it, but I only have time for work and the fitness studio. But maybe someday.

 

[CooCooCachoo]

I don't understand those definitions.

Power is explosive, short-lasting.

 

[Roxitova]

Anyone comparing a team sport is full of it, especially saying it's higher than tennis, because they are constantly being rotated off the feild when tired or not fresh or not delivering!
In tennis it's one guy stuck out there by himself the entire time, with no significant rests at all.
Only triatheletes can compare with endurance, but they have no hand eye coordination demands, etc. just doing the same thing for hours. Players run, slide, stop, hit the ball requiring incredible precision re spin, placement net clearance and tactics re where the opponent is etc. then have to be ready instantly to move in any direction for the next shot.
Tennis is the most demanding of all sports, when all aspects are taken into consideration.

 

[Xenosys]

It's an ESPN article, so I generally take them with a grain of salt as they're skewed towards American sports. Hand Egg isn't a top 5 five sport.