Tennis players eat small, fast-digesting carbohydrates during a match, mostly bananas, energy gels, energy chews, and sports drinks. The goal is simple: replace the fuel your muscles are burning without upsetting your stomach. Professional players aim for 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour of play, taken in small doses during changeovers every two games.
Why Carbohydrates Are the Priority
Tennis burns through your body’s stored carbohydrate (glycogen) faster than any other fuel source. A competitive match can last anywhere from 90 minutes to five hours, and once glycogen runs low, reaction time slows, decision-making suffers, and shots lose power. The fix is straightforward: keep topping off your carbohydrate supply throughout the match.
The USTA recommends consuming 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates every hour during play. The American Dietetic Association suggests a slightly different framework: roughly 50 grams every two hours after an initial pre-match meal. Either way, the principle is the same. You want a steady trickle of energy, not a big meal sitting in your stomach.
Common Foods Players Eat on Court
Bananas are probably the most iconic changeover snack in tennis, and for good reason. They’re soft, easy to digest, packed with carbohydrates, and provide potassium. Most players eat half a banana at a time rather than the whole thing.
Beyond bananas, the most common choices include:
- Energy gels: Small packets of concentrated carbohydrates that absorb quickly. Popular because they require almost no chewing and deliver 20 to 25 grams of carbs in seconds.
- Energy chews: Gummy-style blocks that provide a similar carbohydrate hit in a more palatable form.
- Granola or fuel bars: Slightly more substantial, often eaten between sets or during longer breaks.
- Rice cakes: Light, low-fiber, and easy on the stomach.
- Dates or dried fruit: Natural, sugar-dense, and compact enough to keep in a bag.
What all these foods share is that they’re low in fat, low in fiber, and high in simple carbohydrates. Fat and fiber slow digestion, which is the last thing you want when you have 90 seconds on a changeover and need to get back on court.
Why Digestion Gets Tricky During Play
Tennis is harder on your stomach than sports like cycling or running at a steady pace. The constant upper-body rotation, lateral movement, and bursts of sprinting mean fluid and food slosh around more in your gut. Research on tennis-specific performance has found that fluid volumes above roughly 800 milliliters per hour tend to accumulate in the stomach and cause distress.
Concentrated sugar solutions also slow gastric emptying. Sports drinks with a carbohydrate concentration around 6 to 8 percent (the range most commercial brands fall in) empty from the stomach about as fast as water. Go much higher and the drink sits in your stomach longer, which can cause bloating or nausea mid-rally. This is why players sip diluted sports drinks rather than chugging juice or soda.
What and How Much Players Drink
Hydration during a match matters as much as food. Sweat rates during exercise range from 0.5 to 4.0 liters per hour depending on the individual, the temperature, and the intensity. In a hot outdoor match, a player can easily lose two liters of sweat per hour, and that sweat carries significant amounts of sodium with it.
The general guideline is to drink about 200 milliliters (roughly 7 ounces) every 15 to 20 minutes. Tennis changeovers happen every two games, so players typically take several sips from two different bottles: one with water and one with a sports drink containing electrolytes and carbohydrates. Keeping around 400 to 600 milliliters of fluid in the stomach at any given time optimizes absorption without causing discomfort.
For matches under an hour, water alone is sufficient. Once play stretches past that mark, adding electrolytes and carbohydrates to your fluid becomes important. Most players use isotonic drinks, which have a solute concentration similar to your body’s own fluids. These offer a balance between fast absorption and energy delivery. Hypotonic drinks (lower concentration) absorb even faster and work well when pure rehydration is the priority, like in extreme heat.
Sodium and Electrolyte Replacement
Sodium loss is the biggest electrolyte concern during a long match. Sweat sodium concentrations vary enormously between individuals, ranging from relatively dilute to very concentrated. Players who are heavy sweaters or who have saltier-than-average sweat are at higher risk of cramping.
When a tennis player cramps in hot weather, the primary cause is usually a cumulative sodium deficit built up over the current match and sometimes previous days of competition. This is why you’ll see players adding salt packets to their drinks or eating salted pretzels during Grand Slam tournaments. Appropriate salt and fluid intake can completely prevent heat cramps, even during five-set matches in extreme conditions.
Players don’t typically need to calculate their exact sodium losses unless they’re working with a sports dietitian. A practical approach is to choose a sports drink that contains sodium, salt your pre-match meal well, and add extra salt to fluids if you know you’re a heavy sweater or the conditions are hot.
Caffeine as a Late-Match Boost
Some players use caffeine strategically during long matches, typically through energy gels, caffeinated chews, or even flat cola. Rather than loading up before the match starts, sports performance research suggests using caffeine when fatigue begins to set in. A small dose of around 3 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (roughly 200 milligrams for a 150-pound person, or about the amount in a strong cup of coffee) is enough to sharpen focus and reduce perceived effort without causing jitteriness or a racing heart.
The effective dose range in research sits between 3 and 6 milligrams per kilogram, but starting at the low end minimizes side effects. For a player in a third-set tiebreak or heading into a fourth set, a caffeinated gel can provide a noticeable mental lift within 15 to 20 minutes.
How Fueling Changes in Longer Matches
A two-set women’s match and a five-set men’s Grand Slam require very different fueling strategies. In a quick straight-sets win lasting 60 to 90 minutes, a player might only need a sports drink and half a banana. In a grueling five-setter that pushes past three or four hours, the math changes dramatically. At 50 grams of carbohydrates every two hours, a four-hour match requires at least 100 grams of carbs consumed on court, plus whatever the player ate before the match.
As matches stretch longer, players tend to shift from solid snacks toward gels and liquids. Digestion slows as the body redirects blood flow to working muscles, so lighter, faster-absorbing options become more practical in the later sets. You’ll often see a player eating a piece of banana early in the match and switching to gels or chews by the fourth set.
What Happens Right After the Match
The International Tennis Federation recommends eating within 30 minutes of finishing a match. The target is a meal or large snack with a two-to-one ratio of carbohydrates to protein, paired with a sports drink or natural juice. This window is when your muscles are most efficient at restocking glycogen. In a tournament setting where players may have another match the next day, hitting this recovery window can make a meaningful difference in how they feel 24 hours later.