Justin Russ

Why is this still a thing? 🎾

Did you see the chair umpire tell Alcaraz to take off his strap in Melbourne?

It honestly baffles me. We allow players to compete in $100k luxury watches, but a low-profile activity tracker is where we draw the line? I’ve even seen umpires at the Challenger level force players to remove chest monitors mid-match.

Let’s be real: Tennis is behind the 8-ball when it comes to sports science. We talk about “workload monitoring,” but we aren’t actually measuring the match-level demands that matter.

I’ve analyzed the physiological data—practice demands don’t even come close to the intensity of a real match. If we actually care about player health and longevity, we need quantitative match data. The only way to get that? Wearable tech.

And before you jump in the comments about “illegal data transmission” for betting—if you’ve actually used this tech, you know you have to be in immediate proximity to the device to pull real-time data. A player box isn’t close enough.

It’s time for tennis to join the 21st century. 📈 What do you think—is it time to allow wearables on court, or should the “tradition” stay? 👇