If you follow the US Open these days, you probably noticed the digital claim “The World’s Healthiest Sport” right next to the sidelines at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. A bold sentence that is hardly known from major sports events such as the Champions League or the Super Bowl. But what is behind it?
By Isabella Walser-Bürgler
last edited: 04.09.2025, 4:20 p.m.
© Getty Images
Behind the marketing campaign “World’s Healthiest Sport” is the Usta (United States Tennis Association), the National Tennis Association of the United States. However, the contents of the campaign are not just hot PR air. In fact, the Usta relies on two scientific studies that catapult tennis far forward when it comes to health. A 2016 in British Journal of Sports Medicine Published study in which over 80,000 Brit: I took part: Anyone who operates rackets such as tennis, badminton or squash has a 47 percent reduced risk of death as a whole and a 56 percent reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases. No other sport in this study could keep up with these results.
These insights are supplemented by the result of a long -term study that in 2018 in the Mayo Clinic ProceedingsPublished: Over 8,500 participants: inside from Denmark have been accompanied for almost 25 years. It was shown that tennis players lived on average almost ten years longer than people with a sitting lifestyle. Badminton brings ‘only’ 6.2 additional years, football 4.7, cycling 3.7, swimming 3.4. In the far point, various gym activities that extend life by 1.5 years.
What makes tennis so special
According to cardiologist James O’keefe, co-author of the Mayo study, there is simply no other sport with similarly resilient data. Tennis clubs elements that demand both the body and the mind: endurance and speed, eye-hand coordination, balance, strategic thinking and high social interaction. “If you take all the components together, it is difficult to argue against tennis,” adds Jack Groppel, former head of the scientific advisory board of the Usta. Nevertheless, a small blemish remains: Not all sports were taken into account in the studies or were not examined equally in both studies. Squash was still included in the British study in the “Racket-Sport” cluster, but did not appear in the Danish examination. Similarly, a few team sports such as basketball did not appear, although they could play an important role in life expectancy due to the social component.
Brian Hainline, President of the Usta since 2023, admits: If you were scientifically correct, it would have to be: “Tennis is the sport that is most clearly associated with longer life expectancy in the present studies.” But that is hardly good as a crisp slogan. So therefore “World’s health hiest sport” – a claim that simplifies, but is also not simply out of air. The data still speak volumes.
Pickleball in the neck
An important reason for the offensive of the Usta is the phenomenon of pickle ball. In the United States, the boom sport is displaced by the facilities in many places. S former top players such as Andy Roddick or Andre Agassi are even considered ambassadors in the new racket sport. Pickleball has not yet been scientifically investigated, but experts like O’keefe are convinced that this could also result in effects similar to tennis through movement and social binding.
The message still gets stuck. Tennis is not only for technology freaks or spectators in Grand Slam fever, but one of the most efficient opportunities to strengthen body and mind in the long term. The Claim from the “healthiest sport in the world” is by no means exaggerated-at least as long as basketball players or pickleball fans present their own study.
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Carlos Alcaraz
