This study, the first to assess the influence of repeated tennis matches on physical performance, suggests that when the length of a match does not exceed 2 hours, when balanced meals are taken between matches, and when hydration during matches is sufficient, there is no major deleterious impact on physical performance of the lower-limb muscles. It has already been suggested that skilled tennis performance, which can be affected

by prolonged match-induced fatigue [3,6], quickly returns to normal [21,25]. We can hypothesize that, if the measurements of physical performance had been carried out immediately after the end of the last match of a tournament, a significant decline in performance parameters would have been observed. selleck For example, two recent studies [26,27] showed a decrease of 9 – 15% in the plantar flexor muscles’ MVC immediately after 3-hour tennis matches. Nevertheless, Bioactive Compound Library datasheet two-hour tennis matches are not always associated with decreased performance. Indeed, McRae et al. were not able to show any significant decrease in a specific tennis skill-test following a 2-hour tennis match [10]. We can hypothesize that a succession of longer matches

and/or more intense and/or performed under more constraining environmental conditions would have induced a decrease in physical performance even after several hours of recovery, but more studies are needed to address this hypothesis. Moreover, most of the studies exploring muscle fatigue following tennis matches have used an isometric device [26–32]. To date, only one study has evaluated the impact of tennis practice on muscle performance using isokinetic dynamometer in elite young tennis players [33]. They found that a 90 min practice session induced a 9 to 13% decrease in the knee extensors and flexors of the contractile joint

moments evaluated at 60 and 180°.s−1. Therefore, it would be particularly interesting to conduct more studies evaluating mafosfamide fatigue following tennis matches and practice sessions using isokinetic measurements, which represent more closely tennis activity muscle contraction pattern. In this study, we evaluated physical performance through some simple tests of speed, strength, power and endurance. However, it is conceivable that complementary tests might have revealed fatigue, or that a specific assessment of tennis performance would have demonstrated a drop in performance. One explanation for the fact that the only fatigue observed in our study concerned the triceps brachii muscle could be the fiber composition of this muscle, as it has been recognized that this influences muscle fatigue [34]. It has also been shown that the triceps brachii muscle has a fast profile, with less than 20% of type I fibers [35], while the quadriceps muscle has a more mixed profile with more than 50% of type I fibers [36–38].