Tech time: Wearable technology, gains and pains?

(Getty/Phil Walter)

Technology has slowly but surely infiltrated every aspect of tennis, from racquet and line-calling to how fans interact with players through social media.

One controversial aspect is wearable player metric technologies, and how they are developing, challenging, and progressing the game. 

Wearable player metric technologies utilise technology through wearables such as smart watches, trackers, biophysical sensors, and even clothing technologies to monitor, track, and compare bodily and health metrics. These technologies can track anything from heart rate and breathing patterns to tracking the speed and distance covered by an athlete. 

These metrics produce data that has been shown to enhance performance and reduce injuries by helping athletes and their teams continually monitor the state of all aspects of their physicality. 

For example, a wearable device can monitor sleep patterns by sensing how breathing affects sleep irregularities, and this information can then be used by specialists to help the athlete sleep and recover better. 

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Another example includes tracking devices and sensors that can monitor precisely how an athlete executes certain movements and techniques, which could lead to the athlete developing unnatural movements and tendencies that increase the risk of injury. Coaches can review data and learn these movements, adjusting their coaching to focus on techniques to mitigate the risk of various injuries that could have been attributed to irregular or incorrect movements or execution. 

Yet for all the wonderful insight they produce, controversies surrounding the integrity and ethics of wearable metrics and technologies have come into play. 

At this year's Australian Open, multiple players, including ambassador and eventual women's runner-up Aryna Sabalenka, were required to remove their WHOOP fitness trackers as the tracking devices were banned. Reigning Australian Open winner Carlos Alcaraz also had to remove his WHOOP device from under his wristband, due to the fact that even though the ATP and WTA authorised the use of wearable devices such as WHOOP, the four Grand Slams banned them, citing data privacy and ethics concerns. 

CEO of WHOOP, Will Ahmed, criticised the Australian Open for banning the devices, stating in a tweet on X that "Data is not steroids!" 

WHOOP strategically used the moment to intensify their marketing and sent out discreet wearable tracking options to athletes, such as bras, boxers, and leggings, to bypass the no-wrist-wearables rule. 

Following the backlash at the 2026 Australian Open, the ATP Tour changed its rules in February to allow for the usage of WHOOP on the ATP Tour. However, the Grand Slams still remain adamant about their wearable tech policies and are still banning WHOOP and similar devices in major competitions. 

Founder of the Professional Tennis Coaches Association and acclaimed tennis coach Sven Groeneveld, who is currently coaching world No.14 Karolína Muchova, spoke to The First Serve earlier this year on the matter.

"Regarding wearables, I have been fighting for the players ever since we worked in the 1990s with the chest strap to get more access during match play. However, this was always held back due to unfair advantage and potential coaching protocols," he told The First Serve.

"Fast forward to today, we now have coaching on all levels permitted and still to this day, we have no access to wearables of our own choice. We are strictly limited to certain devices that are permitted for use by players on either tour: Whoop on the WTA and two other data-collecting devices on the ATP Tour."

Yet most other sports have wearable technologies as prevalent parts of their practice and competition culture. Vests with back pockets that allow for GPS trackers have become synonymous with the game of football and basketball, for example, from the youth level all the way to the biggest competitions. It is a very rare occurrence for a player not to be wearing a vest and an inserted tracker under their jerseys, regardless of the level of play. 

But do these technologies hinder the game? Critics claim that data leakages endanger players' privacy and data and could be used to abet sports betting practices and implicate athletes in nefarious betting business. Others claim that the wearables ruin the integrity of the sports and cite concerns over inequities, as lower-ranked players may not have the financial means to access certain technologies.

Developments in the sector also raise the question of whether coaches and staff should be allowed access to these metrics, and how their coaching could be dictated by metrics. Would this be fair or ethical? 

What do you think? Are wearable technologies helping or hindering the game? Is tennis being infiltrated by technology, or does it need to adjust and adapt to these evolving times and embrace what technology has to offer?

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