there's a lot more to it than that

hand-eye co-ordination and concentration are heavily linked to fatigue. If you're not tiring as much during a game, then you can maintain a high level for much longer. You can also keep performing explosive movements for longer.

Players like Djokovic and Nadal are almost robotic in their peformances - there is no perciptible decline in their game in the fifth set compared with the first. That's not normal - especially given how much more ground they cover nowadays than in previous eras. Most of the points now have 5-6 sprints and sharp changes of direction, yet they maintain this for 4-5 hours without it affecting their hand-eye co-ordination.

That doesn't even factor in recovery between games, which allows players nowadays to play multiple hard matches in a week with no decline in performance. It wasn't possible in the pre-blood doping era.

Posted By: Mecagoenti, Jun 6, 14:48:24