Ten Fittest Male Players by Richard Evans

Written by: on 10th August 2016
Ten Fittest Male Players by Richard Evans  |

Editors note.

Great story from the vault. We do agree with Richard that Lew Hoad was one of the greatest Tennis players ever. As well as possessing a great physique. But sorry we would put Roger Federer at number one. He has played 60 straight slams. Knock on wood that’s unheard of @ his level and in today’s more physical game.

We put Pancho Gonzales right next to the mighty Federer. . Those two guys fitness levels in a league of their own.

 

If one excludes one of my favorites, Anthony Wilding, the Wimbledon champion from 1910 to 1913, who was actually the first man to decide it was time someone started trying to get properly fit to play tennis, HARRY HOPMAN has to be the marker for real fitness in the modern era.

When Hopman, a former Australian Davis Cup player himself, started wrestling control of the game Down Under in the immediate post World War Two years, he took his first teenage prodigy – there would be many more – and sent FRANK SEDGMAN to Stan Nicholes gymn in Melbourne.

Nicholes was an Olympic gold medalist as a weight lifter and went on to train a wide range of athletes including the great track star Herb Elliott. Nicholes set out a training regime for the pidgeon-toed, fleet footed Sedgman that included sprints and 400 meter running and a lot of gymn work, including weights. As a result Sedge was recognized as the fittest and fastest man in the game by the time he won Wimbledon in 1952.

LEW HOAD: Fittest? Well that depended on how his chronic back was faring and how many beers he had consumed the night before but Hoad was without question the strongest man who ever played the game. Nicholes who became Davis Cup trainer when Hopman assumed the captaincy, told me once that he had never been able to find a physical exercise that Hoad could not do. “He was the strongest athlete I ever worked with,” said Nicholes who died three years ago. Bob Brett, the celebrated coach who has looked after Boris Becker, Goran Ivanisevic and Marin Cilic amongst numerous others, worked under Hopman and spent untold hours in Nicholes gymn. “One thing Stan used to do with Lew was put his arm on a table with his wrist just over the edge and have him do wrist flips with weights in his hand. I’ve forgotten what weight Lew got up to but it was eye-popping.”

ROY EMERSON: You didn’t survive on Hopman’s squad if you weren’t fit but none were fitter than Emerson. Hopman’s favorite drills included the two-on-one routine which he invented. Apart from the fitness factor it encouraged the player in the singles court to go for the lines because there was always someone to cover the wide shot and keep the rally going. It was no sweat – well maybe just a little – for Emmo who was as fast as lightening and could play the one against two for hours. His fitness was not impaired, either, by the numerous beers he drank every night during tournaments (except the Slams). Needing little sleep he would be up at 7.00 am and off for a run that would sweat all the alcohol out of his body. Five sets of singles and doubles later in the day, no matter how hot the temperature, was no problem for this amazing athlete. Oh, and he shared something else in common with Hoad. A bone-crushing handshake that reduced grown men to tears.

BJORN BORG: The Swede with the rolling sailor’s gait, was one of the most natural athletes ever to play the game. A beautiful physical specimen Borg would eat up acres of court with his easy strides and, as we saw at Wimbledon, could survive the most testing five set duels against the likes of Vitas Gerulaitis, another very fit athlete, and John McEnroe whose fitness left a lot of be desired until he started on the Seniors tour. Anyone doubting Borg’s level of athletic ability had to change their minds when he routinely won all manner of multi-sport iron man contests.

IVAN LENDL: This Czech-born American has always had a perverse sense of humor and it was frequently tinged with a dose of sadism. “I would get up in the morning, look in the mirror and say ‘OK body, how are we going to torture you today’?” The body would then be put through a variety of back breaking routines which included three to four hours on a tennis court followed by a 30 mile bike ride around the roads near his Connecticut mansion. As a little warm down, Ivan would then find it amusing to spend the evening wrestling his five German Shepherds, most of which had arrived in the household as puppies from the Czech Border guard. So you could say that Lendl took fitness for tennis up a notch or two. And, of course, it paid off as his appearance in eight consecutive US Open finals, including three titles, proved.

THOMAS MUSTER: The Austrian iron man was always a hard worker in the gymn where I remember him spending several hours on a rainy day in Dubai of all places before destroying various opponents on the squash court. He could never sit still and was only brought to a halt by that terrifying accident in Miami when someone backed into his car while he was getting his gear out of trunk, crushing his knee. His coach Ronnie Leitgeb allowed no self pity and had him hitting balls from his wheel chair. He hobbled onto the Campo Centrale at Foro Italico on crutches and promptly announced he would be back in twelve months to win the title. People tittered. But they were cheering when Thomas duly returned to win the Italian Open title after a year’s rehab training of an intensity that few athletes could have survived.

JIM COURIER: Taking a leaf out of the Lendl play book, this muscular Floridian seemed to take a delight in punishing himself during the course of endless training routines that mixed hours on the practice court with as much time in the gymn. Like all truly fit players, Courier took a gilt-edged advantage on court with him, especially in hot conditions, because opponents knew they could never outlast him physically. The result was two Australian and two French Open titles, all earned the hard way.

RAFAEL NADAL: From what we understand Nadal has been fit since Uncle Toni got hold of him at the age of four. An outdoor lifestyle on the island of Mallorca was perfect for a naturally energetic youngster and Rafa was already an imposing physical specimen when I first saw him, at about 17, playing soccer with some other players on the grass lawns at Indian Wells. The muscle mass seemed be get reduced when it became clear that his knees were having trouble supporting the weight but it did little to reduce Nadal’s powers of endurance and the fact that he could return to the circuit this year after seven months out and reach the final of nine straight tournaments, winning seven, says it all about his level of fitness.

ANDY MURRAY: If anyone has ever doubted the level of fitness the new Wimbledon champion demands of himself, they need do nothing more than observe one of Murray’s routine training days in Florida, either at Miami University or, occasionally, up the coast at the Delray Beach Tennis Center. The latter venue works out just fine for Jez Green, the Englishman who is largely responsible for Andy’s fitness, because he lives there. Green has devised various forms of torture for his willing pupil, including 100 and 200 meter sprints with no more than a few seconds for recovery and then, at the end of several hours on court, the donning of the weighted jacket. “The weights must be exactly Andy’s body weight,” says Green. “More is not good and less doesn’t get the job done.” Murray plays for another half an hour with this handicap but the result is the impressive, ribbed athlete you see today.

So this is my top ten but it seems churlish to leave Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic off the list. They would never have won as much as they have if they had not been fit. Federer’s graceful style demands less of his body than a Nadal while Djokovic, after curing earlier health problems with the help of a gluten free diet, is now right up there with the fittest players of all time.

 

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