With the summer swing not too far ahead and tournament after tournament featuring superstar athletes like Paula Badosa, Iga Swiatek, and Novak Djokovic, many of us are inspired to hit the tennis court. Tennis burns many calories and offers incredible benefits like increasing your endurance and strengthening your muscles. But what are the best smartwatches for tennis?
With all this work on the court, you want to see how you are responding physically! That’s why I have tried out a number of the best smartwatch watches for tennis and am going to list them here! Let’s keep in mind that the best one for tennis actually doesn’t have a screen! There is a reason for that!
Let’s swing right into this.
1. Whoop 4.0
The Whoop 4.0 will be different from any of our other watches on this list. For starters, if it is your first time purchasing this watch, then you can only pay for it by a monthly subscription starting at $20 a month. This is one of the downsides of the watch but before you keep scrolling, keep this in mind. It is one of the only watches professional athletes can use during their game, and it is one of if not the most accurate tracking on the market.
The App
Since the monitor does not have a screen, many professional tennis players and other athletes use it because of the information you get from its tracking benefits. Every day you wake up with a recovery score classified as red, yellow, or green. The better recovery you get, the more primed you are to take on the strain that day. Strain goes from 0.0 to 21 based on the activities you do.
You can also get an insight into what contributes to your recovery score. Outside of strain, your sleep and sleep quality are looked at intensely. You can see how much time you spend in R.E.M, light sleep, and the number of disturbances you experience every night.
The Stats
So how do we get all the quality statistics? The sensors put in the Whoop are some of the best, including five LED sensors (three red, one green, and one infrared sensor.) This gives us skin temperature, heart rate, heart rate variability, and blood oxygen levels, among many more.
Because of this, the Whoop is the ultimate professional sports tracking smartwatch and my favorite on this list of the best smartwatches for tennis. However, it can only be purchased directly from Whoop.
2. Apple Watch Series 7/8/Ultra
For those who want something that you can use for off-court activities like testing, calls, and more, the Apple Watch Series 7 is a great option. If you’re about the latest and greatest then choose from the Apple Watch 8 or Ultra. Aside from the obvious factor that it syncs up with all of your Apple products, it also offers excellent health stats that make a difference when we are playing tennis. Choosing the right watch face could also help focus on the tennis goals you want to achieve.
Read more: Using your Apple Watch for Tennis
![Apple Watch Series 8 [GPS 45mm] Smart Watch w/Midnight Aluminum Case with Midnight Sport Band -...](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41lez0Kg9jL._SL160_.jpg)
Here are some features that can really improve your workouts.
- The accelerometer and gyroscope use angles, speed, and momentum to give you service speeds and track how many forehands and backhands you hit.
- After setting your goals, Apple Sharing allows you to compete with your close friends throughout the week.
- Being a good tennis player is so much more than on-court training. Training with other workouts to increase cardio is imperative. Apple Fitness+ gives you hundreds of guided activities from stretching and yoga to HIIT.
- Important sensors include blood oxygen levels, heart rate monitoring, sleep breakdowns, and ECG capabilities.
- It’s also worth noting that the Apple Watch Series 7-8 and obviously also the Ultra are incredibly durable, making them a great option if playing on surfaces like clay, where tiny rocks or dust may hit the screen.
Compare prices and choose your favorite merchant to buy the Apple Watch
| Product | Supplier | |
| Apple Watch 8 | Amazon | Check Price |
| Apple Watch 7 | Amazon | Check Price |
| Apple Watch 7 | eBay | Check Price |
| Watch Ultra | Amazon | Check Price |
| Apple Watch 7 | Apple | View offer |
| Apple Watch 7 | Target | View offer |
| Apple Watch SE 2 | Amazon | View offer |
3. Garmin Vivoactive 4 or Venu 2
Garmin is one of Apple’s biggest competitors, but when it comes to tennis, both the Garmin Vivoactive 4 and Venu 2 Plus are genuinely a superb option for so many reasons. It is one of the most attractive watches and can easily be customized in its size (thank you to small wrists) and its colors!
You could also download a tennis App from Garmin connect which allows for more tailored Tennis tracking but we haven’t really zoned in on one that is best so it’s up to you to test and try what works for you as a tennis player.
Fitness Features We Love
So when it comes to tennis, trying to exert yourself in quick bursts and get ready for the next point is crucial. What this means is being able to bring your heart rate down quickly in the 20-25 seconds break you have. Both Garmin Vivoactive 4 and the Venu 2 Plus have a good number of fitness features that helps us with that!
Metrics
Here are a few key metrics they provide that can affect your training.
- Wrist Heart Rate Sensor lets us know how hard you work during activities. You can watch it go up and down during practice.
- Pulse Ox Sensor lets us know how are blood oxygen is doing. This is a major indicator of health and is taken usually at night.
- Body Battery Energy Monitoring allows us to see how well we are recovering after sleeping and a day of hard work on the court!
Tools
We loved metrics but we also love the tools that get us in shape and help us off the court as much as on the court!
- Hydration tracking won’t let us go a day without skipping our needed water intake.
- Animated workouts guide us on the screen to stay fit and increase our strength and anaerobic capabilities.
- Garmin Coach also helps us train through running which is an important off-court fitness component to tennis training!
- Built-in microphone in the Garmin Venu 2 Plus enables some extra features not found on other Garmin watches (e.g. making calls)
What is missing?
Although smartwatches today record almost every health and activity feature, for tennis we need more. It would be much more beneficial if the smartwatch for tennis could record the tennis strokes. If it could sense the velocity and the power of the stroke. How many backhands, how many forehands, volley ball, smash, and more? This would especially help trainers feedback to their students.
4. Fitbit Sense 2
Lastly, but certainly not least we wanted to include the Fitbit Sense 2. It comes in at just under $300 which makes it a slightly more affordable option than some of the others. We love the Fitbit Sense 2 for so many reasons when it comes to tennis like how it incorporates a 6-month trial for Fitbit Premium.
The new Sense 2 has better sleep and fitness tracking sensors, GPS and improved stress monitoring hardware and algorithms as well.
Now you may be thinking why do I need a meditation app for tennis? Well, tennis is 80% mental and when we train our minds we train our bodies! Let’s talk about what makes the Fitbit Sense 2 just a great fit!
For The Court
Giving us a daily readiness score is important because training with a body that’s not ready to handle the base is dangerous. Some of these scores come from the EDA Scan App which takes a closer look at how our body is responding to stress.
Something that really sticks out is the Active Zone. This makes every minute of your workout count by really monitoring your heart rate. When you get it up there it buzzes letting you know you’ve hit your goal. This is the best way to train stronger cardiovascular muscles!
More That We Love For Tennis
Here are a few bits that could be a determining factor for your training and tennis.
- On wrist-skin temperature monitoring
- ECG exams to detect irregular heartbeats
- High and low heart rate notifications
- Sleep scores and stages
- and so much more!
The Fitbit Sense really offers a full metric arsenal when it comes to monitoring your health and tennis!
Are you a tennis player? If so, let us know in the comments which smart watch you use.
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Last Updated on January 13, 2023
Brittany Collens is one of our top sports writers. She is also a professional tennis player which helps her authority on subjects such as health and fitness.
She has a degree in journalism and has previously written for well-established sports magazines in Massachusetts.
Brittany lives in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States.