Effects of increasing fatigue on service accuracy in male university-level tennis players during training

Abstract Background Successful serve performance is an important component of tennis performance. Increasing exercise-induced fatigue may impair technical performance, including serve accuracy, particularly during prolonged or high-intensity play. Objective: This study aimed to investigate changes in serve accuracy across progressively increasing, individually prescribed exercise workloads in male university-level tennis players under controlled experimental conditions. Methods: Fifteen trained male tennis players (mean ± SD: age 22.33 ± 1.44 years; height 1.78 ± 0.06 m; body mass 75.40 ± 11.60 kg; BMI 23.75 ± 3.60 kg/m 2 ; tennis playing experience: 2.6 ± 0.5 years) voluntarily participated in this repeated-measures study. Each participant first completed the HIT-TURN test to determine individual maximal test performance. Moderate-intensity (MI) and high-intensity (HI) workload thresholds were subsequently prescribed at 60% and 80%, respectively, of each participant’s individual maximal HIT-TURN performance. Measurements were obtained at baseline (BL), MI, and HI on separate testing days with 72-h recovery intervals. Rating of perceived exertion (RPE), blood lactate concentration (BLC), and Serve Hit Points (SHP) were assessed. Data were analyzed using one-way repeated-measures ANOVA with Bonferroni-adjusted post hoc comparisons ( p < 0.05). Results: BLC and RPE increased significantly across the exercise conditions ( p < 0.001). SHP also differed significantly across conditions ( p < 0.001). Post hoc comparisons showed significantly lower SHP at HI than at BL and MI (both p < 0.001), whereas the difference between BL and MI was not significant. Conclusion: Serve accuracy was reduced at the high-intensity workload compared with both baseline and the moderate-intensity workload in male university-level tennis players. These findings suggest that higher tennis-specific exercise demands may be associated with impaired serve accuracy under controlled testing conditions. Further studies using more ecologically valid match-play protocols and broader participant populations are warranted.