Tennis – Sporticane

We wrote an amazing piece about the paths that tennis players take when they retire, which you can see here. Players have passions and loves for tennis, so much so, it can be hard to turn the other way, even though retirement is at an early age for the sport. Tennis players retire around the age of 27. However, they may continue to play well into their 30's. Many noteworthy players do so today. Tennis players are generally considered to peak at either 24 or 25. The world's oldest tennis player at the moment, Leonid Stanislavski, is 97 years old. The sport is one where you do not hear of any players breaking through only having dedicated themselves to the game for a couple years. Like a lot of sports, tennis is one in which people start to specialise in early on, and where the sheer volume of matches and training takes a toll on players' bodies, leading to injuries leading to early retirement. For many players, tennis retirement is simply the result of being unable to pay bills or earn living playing tennis. I would say a big contributor to tennis retirement is how successful the player has been over their career. One factor which would be critical to whether or not a player decided to retire will be how close to his or her peak performance he or she is. To summarize, I would say that sex really plays a part in determining when a player will retire from tennis, just as it determines when they will reach their peak. Contemporary Studies on Tennis Players' Ages Studies show that male players generally peak around the ages of 23-24, whereas female players peak much sooner, around the age of 20-21. Female players are also more likely than male players to compete at a higher level early in life, potentially leading female players to suffer more injuries and wish to transition sooner than their male counterparts. Top female players are also playing for a longer time, though top players have an older average age than men. Everyone has different spikes in their tennis careers, but there is also a noticeable trend in spikes of the men and women tennis players. Female players generally tend to retire sooner (sometimes temporarily) in order to have families, while male players may continue playing under similar circumstances. The average retirement age is higher for men than women, and players with lower success rates in both sexes are more likely to have to retire early, whether due to financial reasons or a lack of health care support. Players in this situation typically retire at their early 20s, either because they have run out of money, have suffered a chronic injury, or have made the decision that tennis is no longer viable as a career option for them, and that they must move on. Tennis Careers Are Normally Brief The playing careers for tennis players are generally brief, with an average age for retirement being about 27 years. The best-known example of a tennis player retiring very young is Bjorn Borg, who retired when he was only 26 years old. Famous names from the past such as Tracy Austin and Andrea Jaeger are examples of players that enjoyed early success and retired very young. Before we get into more detail on this, here are 5 examples of the age of retirement for the best players to have retired in the last few years. There were some notable feats of longevity, though some statistics represented former top players who accepted wild cards into local events or favorites while semi-retired, simply to see if they could still play at this level. Former Top 10 players without Grand Slam titles, like Gael Monfils, Fernando Verdasco, Feliciano Lopez, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, etc., still appear to be enjoying the tennis grind, as well as the pay cheques that come along with being a big, albeit non-top-tier pro tennis player. It is a sad reality in professional tennis that you realize lower-ranked players, especially ones who are not in the top 100, have it really rough when it comes to keeping lower-ranked players' careers going. The Trajectory of a Player's Career While many pro tennis players begin playing once they graduate from high school, the median age for pros at the very top is increasing, with many now entering their late 30s. With so much reliance on strength and strategy in the sport nowadays, the trend towards older players seems set to continue. The tennis game has historically seen teenagers winning the majors, players peaking in their early twenties before retiring younger than the 30-year-olds that Djokovic and Murray are currently. As long as money is available and hunger for winning is high, tennis players more often than not delay retirement until the mid-30s. There is a now clear trend of players being able to keep playing into their mid-30s as long as they stay motivated. After retiring, tennis players are still involved with tennis in some capacity, for example, coaching up-and-coming players. Of course, there are many factors involved as to why players retire when they do, and often this goes beyond simply growing older. Beyond the hard work in practice, there are plenty of sacrifices that players need to make, much like any other sport. Basketball really does demand a few different physical elements compared to tennis, but realize it is a team game, and you are dependent on the other players to help out. There are probably only a few sports overall more demanding than tennis, whereas baseball/basketball/etc. Tennis is a singles game, so the player cannot track his minutes the way they could with a team game in order to keep himself fresh. This means even if a player wants to become #1 or #2, he cannot rest for long periods of time throughout the season and expect to be top-seeded at majors.