While sports like basketball are dominated by giants, many of whom stand over 7 feet tall, tennis has a much wider range of player heights than other sports.
Undersized players are most affected by the height gap during the serve because they don’t get to hit down on the ball and, considering that – can’t generate the same power as taller players.
Returning serve is one area where shorter players typically outperform their taller opponents. Taller players dislike having the ball hit into their bodies, which also applies to serves.
For shorter players, standing further back allowed them to run down more balls while also allowing the balls to come down to a more manageable height.
They also must stay in top shape to play defense and extend rallies.
While larger players are becoming more agile, most of them are still clumsy.
In this article, we’ll talk about how important height is for tennis players and how shorter tennis players compete in this beautiful sport.
Is it necessary for professional tennis players to be tall?
I’ve always felt like a midget whenever I’ve been fortunate enough to “hang around” a players’ lounge during an ATP tournament.
I’m not particularly tall by tennis player standards, especially when it comes to the game’s upper echelons. It’s almost made me wonder if it’s necessary to be tall to play tennis.
For example, the Argentine Diego Schwartzman, who stands at 5’7″, is the shortest player in the ATP top 20. Russian Daniil Medvedev and German Alexander Zverev are the two tallest players at 6’6″.
The story is similar to women’s tennis. Czech Karolina Pliskova, who stands at 6’1′, is the tallest player in the WTA top 20.
Australian Ashleigh Barty, who’s 5’5′, is the shortest player in the top 20. Barty is also the world’s number one at the time of writing.
I can confidently say that you don’t need to be tall to play tennis if you can become the world number one in women’s tennis at 5’5″. It does, however, have some benefits.
Size does matter at the net, on groundstrokes, and especially on the serve — for reach, pace, and angles.
It’s 2022, and looking at players like Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, and Thiem, 1.85-1.90 appears to be a “golden height.”
We see the 1.85 m height as an average as we move down the rankings (to the top 200). Players like Fognini, Nishikori, and Goffin give us “shorter” players hope of reaching the sport’s pinnacle.
But what exactly is the average tennis player’s height?
The sport of tennis has evolved dramatically over the last 30 years. Racket shapes and materials have evolved, new technologies (such as hawk-eye) have been introduced, and even the game rules have changed.
Players have had to adapt as the sport has evolved. Tennis players are now stronger, more endurable, faster, and taller than ever.
Back in the 1980s, it would have been unthinkable to think that we would one day see players standing over 6 feet 5 inches (195 cm) moving all over the court and playing 5-hour matches.
However, on the ATP tour today, this is a common sight. In fact, four of the top ten ATP players are over 6 feet 5 inches tall.
Furthermore, 13 of the top 50 players (or 26% of the total) are taller than the same mark. Taller tennis players are achieving greater success, and height is becoming more important in tennis year after year. But when does height start to assist a player’s game?
The top 500 men tennis players in the world stand at an average height of 185.5 centimeters (6-feet-1). The average height of professional tennis players is between 183 cm and 188 cm, as measured by 222 of the top 500 players.
Our own analysis of data from the Association of Tennis Professionals shows the number of top 500 players who are a certain height. We can see how most of them are between the heights of 183 and 188.
While many of the top tennis players are between the heights of 183 and 188cm, this is not to say that height does not matter in tennis – it does.
The top 10 players have an average height of 190.9 cm (6 feet 3 inches), while those ranked 401–500 have an average height of only 183.5 cm (6 feet).
There is a significant height difference between players of different rankings, so we’ll dig a little deeper into that. We went over the heights of various ranking “zones” and determined how short players compete.
How do short tennis players compete?
By no means, a lack of height is a disqualifier. A fantastic Sloane Stephen is 5’7”, followed by even better Ashleigh Barty (5’5”), Carla Suárez Navarro (5’4”), and Dominika Cibulkova (5’3”).
Also, Simona Halep (ranked No. 15 on 10 January 2022) is only 5’6”.
On the men’s side, one of the biggest upsets occurred in the third round, when Philipp Kohlschreiber, who stands 5’10”, regularly defeats fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev, who stands eight inches taller.
Shorter players are faster, more agile, and have better footwork than their NBA peers, but they also needed superior technique and shot accuracy.
Successful shorter players need emotional stability and the warrior mentality of Michael Chang or David Ferrer, who recently played his final US Open.
Cibulkova, for example, is a smaller player who packs a punch in her games. Ricardas Berankis, who is listed at 5-9, regularly serves at 120 miles per hour, but he will never match the speeds of John Isner (6’10”) or Kevin Anderson (6’8”).
Shorter players had to learn to read their opponent’s tosses and analyze the game better in order to maximize their return opportunities.
I wanted to come up with a list of the top 10 shortest players in the top 500 of the ATP rankings to add some fun facts to this article. They are as follows:
1. Yuta Shimizu (#367) has a height of 163 cm.
2. Hiroki Moriya – 168 cm (#224)
3. Roberto Ortega Olmedo – 168 cm (#248)
4. Shuichi Sekiguchi (#272) has a height of 168 cm.
5. Rio Noguchi – 168 cm (#398)
6. Diego Schwartzmann (#15) has a height of 170 cm.
7. Yoshihito Nishioka (#72) has a height of 170 cm.
8. Oscar Jose Gutierrez (#371) has a height of 170 cm.
9. Evan Furness – 170 cm (#407)
10. Sebastian Baez (#430) – 170 cm
Is it true that tennis can make you taller?
Tennis will not increase your height in any way. This is because genetics and nutrition are the two factors that determine height.
The only thing you can do to influence your height is to eat a well-balanced diet. Unfortunately, there isn’t much that can be done about genes.
There is no way for adults to grow taller once they have passed the growth stage. On the other hand, they can work on improving their posture to appear taller.
This will also aid them in making better use of their bodies while playing tennis.
Your posture can influence your tennis game.
If your posture is so bad in everyday life that it has weakened your muscles, it can lead to issues on the court, such as poor balance.
Good balance is a result of good posture. Your center of balance will be compromised if you stand ready to receive the ball with your back hunched over.
If your back is straighter, on the other hand, you will be starting from a much stronger position.
You can drive more of your weight through the shot and thus use more power by bending your legs rather than your back.
It is not the be-all and end-all for your tennis if you have bad posture. There are, however, a variety of exercises and techniques you can use to improve it.
Maybe I’ll write about it in a future article.
