For the last two weeks during the 2012 French Open, it is obvious how physical the sport of tennis has become and will continue to increase over the coming decade. The athletes are bigger, stronger, faster and have more tennis-specific endurance. The reasons for this are rather clear. The improved quality of training:

• from assessments,
• to training,
• to monitoring,
• to scheduling/planning
• to recovery

are why we have seen such large increases over the past decade. At the highest levels the athletes have entire teams around them including performance physiologists, physical therapists (physios), certified tennis performance specialists, athletic trainers, nutritionists, medical doctors, chiropractors and other healthcare providers to help the athletes achieve their optimum physical conditioning and prevent injuries. Although the average tennis player does not have the time or resources to work with all these experts to help them improve their on-court tennis performance and reduce injuries, there are avenues that the tennis player – at the junior, collegiate, adult league, senior or professional level – should explore to help them achieve success on court and reduce the likelihood of injuries.

The International Tennis Performance Association (iTPA) was established to improve the quality and consistency of training of tennis athletes at every level. The iTPA is the leader in tennis-specific performance, education and certification and is the organization for trainers, coaches and specialists who have a passion for tennis-specific performance enhancement and injury prevention. The iTPA achieves its objectives through quality evidence-based education, and the promotion of the professionals in the field who have the education, knowledge, skills and abilities to effectively train tennis athlete and improve the health, safety and performance of tennis athletes worldwide.

It is important to work with a tennis coach that has gone the through the Tennis Performance Trainer (TPT) certification program which ensures that they have certain knowledge, skills and abilities in the major aspects of the physical training that can be combined with their tennis teaching and coaching knowledge. A tennis coach that has earned the TPT designation is someone that understands the basics of 14 areas needed to improve the quality of training for the tennis athlete. If your tennis coach does not currently have this designation suggest to them that they look into the TPT program   (http://www.itpa-tennis.org/tpt.html).

If you are working with anyone off-court with respect to training, injury prevention or rehabilitation then they should go through the Certified Tennis Performance Specialist (CTPS) certification program which is specifically designed to educate and assess the knowledge in 20 tennis-specific competencies including assessments, resistance training, tennis-specific movement, strokes and injury concerns, planning and periodization and more than a dozen other areas that are needed to effectively train the tennis athlete at any level. The CTPS program is recognized in the fitness industry by a number of organizations as an important level of education needed to successfully work with tennis athletes. If your strength and conditioning coach, personal fitness trainer, physical therapist (physio), athletic trainer or other healthcare provider does not currently have the CTPS designation you should suggest that they look into the CTPS program.
(http://www.itpa-tennis.org/ctps.html).

Please continue to follow the iTPA on facebook (facebook.com/itpatennis), via twitter (@itpatennis) and at the website (www.itpa-tennis.org) for daily information about performance enhancement and injury prevention for the tennis athlete.

Todd Ellenbecker, DPT, CTPS, CSCS (chair of the ITPA Certification Commission and also the Director of Sports Medicine for the ATP World Tour), provides a short video and advice for strength & conditioning professionals, athletic trainers, physical therapists or other healthcare providers who may currently work with tennis athletes or who would like to work with tennis athletes in the future. Check out the short video and please share with any professional who tests, trains or treats tennis athletes at any age or level. The ITPA  is recognized by the Board of Certification, Inc. to offer continuing education for Certified Athletic Trainers.

This is always impossible to answer totally objectively, but it is interesting to ask the question and get different thoughts on this very thought provoking question. The ATP lists the individuals with the best 5 set record. This does provide us with some interesting information, but more than just physical fitness plays into this statistic. Many of the individuals high on this list had huge serves. Some interesting individuals were rather low on the list. Andy Roddick was the lowest world number one at 168 and Carlos Moya (another world number 1) was 156. Ivan Lendl (who is widely credited with changing the physical nature of tennis) is 49 and someone with such a great reputation as having an outstanding fitness work ethic and fighting spirit is Lleyton Hewitt and he comes in at 51. Pete Sampras probably never given enough credit for his fitness comes in above Rod Laver, Andy Murray and Thomas Muster. Possibly the most surprising is Roger Federer. Many consider him the greatest player of all time and he comes in on this list at 114. It is also worth mentioning that Jim Courier (who many describe as the hardest working tennis player they have ever seen) comes in at 91. After taking a look at this list feel free to provide your subjective opinion on who you think is the fittest male professional player of all time and whether this 5 set record table is correlated with fitness or some other factors?