IIf you’ve been watching any of ESPN’s US Open coverage over the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed the graphic sitting on the right of the screen, right on the edge of Arthur Ashe Stadium: a digital stamp touting tennis as “The Healthiest that World Sport.”
That’s an in-your-face claim to make, during the sport’s highest-profile, most-watched event staged in the United States. During, say, the Super Bowl, I don’t remember football touting itself as “the most exciting sport in the world” or some such on the TV screen (“healthiest in the world” certainly won’t work for in football). Or a commercial trumping broccoli or beets as “The World’s Healthiest Food.”
Very bold. And effective: with the slogan embedded in my brain, I made a point of hitting some tennis balls for an hour with a friend last weekend. And sure enough, I felt a little nervous afterwards.
But is it really tennis? The healthiest sport in the world? who said
I did some digging. The short answer: it might be. But otherwise—and there’s also a decent chance it won’t—the inaccurate message that runs all the time during the US Open counts as a victimless violation.
And it can improve public health.
Because while almost all sports offer benefits to the body and mind, a whole body of research, not to mention common sense, shows that the health effects of tennis are particularly strong. People experience a range of positive outcomes from tennis, such as improved cardiovascular and bone health, better agility and coordination, and overall happiness.
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As for its supposed status as the world’s healthiest sport, “I mostly agree,” said Amy Chan Hyung Kim, associate professor in the department of sport management at Florida State University who co-authored a study in 2022 extolling the social benefits of tennis. The United States Tennis Association (USTA), which created the “world’s healthiest” marketing campaign—neither the USTA nor ESPN would disclose whether the USTA pays the network for in-match digital-ad space—cited the -Kim’s study in strengthening its case. Although Kim “doesn’t entirely” agree with the USTA’s claim, given the stress and burnout tennis can cause at the most elite levels, along with the overuse injuries that players can suffer weekend warrior.
The USTA might want to ask someone who has torn their ACL, or has a mild case of tennis elbow, or Rafael Nadal, who has battled pain and injuries throughout his career, had hip surgery last year and abdominal muscle problems in 2024, and missed three of four major tournaments this season, if tennis is the healthiest sport in the world.
According to Dr. Brian Hainline, the chairman of the board and president of the USTA since 2023, two specific studies gave him the confidence to sign the slogan. The first, published in British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2016, found that among more than 80,000 British adults, participation in the racquet sports of tennis, badminton, or squash was associated with a 47% reduction in the risk of dying during the study period from any cause and a 56% reduction in risk of cardiovascular-related death. Compared to all other activities studied—bicycling, swimming, running, soccer, aerobics—racquet sports were most strongly associated with a lower risk of death.
Then, in 2018, a study was published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that in more than 8,500 adults from Copenhagen who were followed for almost 25 years, playing tennis was associated with an increased life expectancy of almost a decade compared to those with a sedentary lifestyle . Other sports examined—badminton (6.2 years), soccer (4.7), cycling (3.7), swimming (3.4), jogging (3.2), calisthenics (3.1), and health-club activities such as treadmills and elliptical machines (1.5)— lack of tennis.
Tennis as “the healthiest sport in the world” is “very defensible from a scientific point of view,” said Dr. James O’Keefe, director of preventive cardiology at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute and professor of medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, who is a co-author of Mayo Clinic Proceedings study. “Tennis has better data than any other sport to do that. So no BS.”
“When you put it all together—every possible element of hand-eye coordination, agility, balance, aerobic, anaerobic, psychological elements and physiological elements—that’s when it’s really hard to argue against the game of tennis,” said Jack Groppel, former chairman of the USTA’s national sports science committee.
That’s enough. We can debate the health benefits of tennis versus other sports all day. But this does not change an important point: while both studies make a case for tennis, no each analyzed the sport on the planet. So how to legitimately claim tennis The healthiest sport in the world?
Hainline recognizes this shortcoming. “As a scientist, my slogan is, ‘Tennis has been shown unequivocally to improve your lifespan more than any other sport studied,'” said Hainline, a neurologist who spent more than a decade as chief medical officer for the NCAA. But you can’t put that poppy tagline on a TV screen. Hainline is comfortable with marketing being the “healthiest sport in the world”, he says, “because I think it has some truth to it. As a scientist, if I were in charge of marketing, we’d probably have almost no marketing. It would be a series of asterisks .”
Two sports may have a particular beef with the USTA. What about squash, which is grouped under the “racquet sports” umbrella with tennis and badminton under British Journal of Sports Medicine study showing a reduced mortality risk of those activities, but not examined with tennis in Mayo Clinic Proceedings piece? Who’s to say that squash doesn’t drive the life-prolonging benefits of racquet sports or that it doesn’t offer more advantages than tennis?
Another sport that has at least one shot against tennis—and it lost in both studies—is basketball. And I’m not just shooting hoops as someone who still plays pickup games on an almost weekly basis (OK, I am). The Mayo Clinic Proceedings study in particular points to the importance of the social benefits of sports: games that we play with or against other people, such as tennis, badminton, and soccer, scored higher in hope in life than activities that undoubtedly help your heart, but in their Nature requires solitary pursuits (biking, swimming, jogging, exercising, and working out at the gym).
“Social support is the No. 1 predictor of most all health outcomes, including life expectancy,” said O’Keefe, the study’s co-author. Weekend-warrior hoops is incredibly social, with in-person and group-chat smack talking a big part of the fun. If being happy helps you live longer, basketball has to be in the “healthiest” mix.
Hainline agreed. “On your basketball question, I’ll take the challenge and say, you know, we market based on what’s available,” he said. “On the other hand, one thing you’ll never hear me do is promote tennis exclusively.”
Although Hainline insisted he would have pushed aggressively to sell the health benefits of tennis despite the competitive environment, the rapid rise of pickleball gave the charge more urgency. Across the country, the two sports have clashed in space, with pickleball winning more often than not. “Pickleball is a challenge for us,” Hainline said. “Where pickleball really hurts tennis is the infrastructure. It’s probably over a billion dollars worth of courts that have been taken away.”
And pickleball is about to battle tennis for “healthiest sport” status, according to the scientist who helped prove tennis is king. If the sport, which wasn’t really a player when either study was published years ago, was included in a similar analysis today, “I have no doubt that pickleball would be like tennis,” O said. ‘Keefe. “It’s like badminton. It would be six to 10 years of extra life expectancy, even adjusting for everything else.” He based this assessment on social bonds in the “thwack thwack” range.
“Racket sports are fun to play for people who love them,” said O’Keefe, who practices what he preaches. He was expecting a fight yesterday evening. “It’s a gorgeous day here in Kansas City, it’s going to be like 78 and sunny,” he said. “Just perfect. You just can’t do that and not come back happy and relaxed and ready for a good night’s sleep. That’s just a love life.”
He was going to play pickleball.
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