Tennis is in the middle of a tech revolution. In this two-part series, we take a closer look at how data and innovation are changing the game—beginning with how players recover.
Elite tennis doesn’t end at match point anymore.
The modern recovery process begins the moment a player steps off court—sometimes even before the final handshake. In a sport defined by grueling schedules, late-night finishes, and razor-thin margins, what happens between matches is increasingly shaping what happens during them.
Just ask Aryna Sabalenka.
The most telling stat from Sabalenka’s Sunshine Double run—winning Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back—wasn’t a serve speed or winner count. It was her recovery.
Read More: Wardrobe WHOOPs: Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka run afoul of AO wearables rule
Using WHOOP, a screenless wearable fitness tracker, Sabalenka logged consistently high recovery scores throughout the Miami Open. WHOOP CEO Will Ahmed later shared that nearly all of her daily scores fell in the “green,” indicating optimal readiness—except for one: the day of her semifinal win over Elena Rybakina.
“This is very hard to do given the strain of the matches and the pressure of the finals. Impressive,” Ahmed wrote.
WHOOP’s recovery score, calculated each morning using heart rate variability, resting heart rate, sleep quality, and respiratory rate, is designed to measure how prepared the body is to take on strain. In Sabalenka’s case, it told a clear story: elite performance wasn’t just about how hard she pushed, but how well she recovered.
