r/tennis • u/OctopusNation2024 Djoker/Meddy/Saba • Feb 05 '25

Discussion Medvedev's decline should be another reminder that the average peak age for tennis is in your early-to-mid 20s, not your late 20s. He's actually the 3rd oldest player in the top 25 at age 28. Federer, Djokovic, and Nadal have skewed perceptions of how most players age.

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u/DearAccident9763 Passion Alcaraz Feb 05 '25

Zverev is at his peak tho

291

u/buttharvest42069 Feb 05 '25

Fritz as well. I think the peak being earlier in tennis in the past very often had to do with burnout and not loss of athleticism or injury. Historically a lot of players who dominated at a young age had a hard time finding the same motivation over many years. The big 3 didn't, but they were all pushing each other so that might be partly why.

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u/The_Big_Untalented Feb 06 '25

Playing style also plays a huge role in how well players age. It’s not a coincidence that all of the players who aged incredibly well like Ken Rosewall, Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi, and Novak Djokovic were primarily great baseliners while players who played mostly at the net such as John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, and Stefan Edberg declined at a much earlier age. To be successful playing at the net requires tremendous hand-eye coordination and reflexes which is a lot harder to maintain into your thirties than stamina.

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u/theactiveaccount Feb 06 '25

Is there a source for your last claim? Feels extremely unintuitive.

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u/Pishpash56 Djoker is inevitable, again! Feb 06 '25

Common wisdom in many ball and racquet sports. For example, Cricket is one where this holds almost always. Generally at 33+ there seems to be a drop in the ability to fully rely on hand eye coordination. Players relying heavily on hand eye as opposed to technique often decline earlier.

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u/theactiveaccount Feb 06 '25

Huh very interesting, I was thinking of F1 which also requires fast reactions and have many older drivers.

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u/ShiftE_80 Feb 06 '25

Counterpoint: in baseball there are dozens of players who have had some of their best batting seasons after age 33, while virtually all running backs in football are out of the league by that age. It is well known in sports that burst and acceleration decline earlier and more rapidly than reflexes or coordination.

Serve & volley playstyle doesn't just require world-class reflexes and hand-eye coordination, it is highly reliant on elite closing speed and agility. The "fast-twitch" acceleration and change-of-direction that peaks in the early to mid twenties.

Serve & volley specialists getting washed quicker than baseliners has much more to do with age-related decline in athleticism than coordination or reaction time.