ENG101: Tennis vs. Badminton: Comparative Sports Analysis

This essay provides a comprehensive comparison between tennis and badminton, two globally popular racket sports. It explores various aspects, including the physical demands, competitive intensity, and international recognition of each sport. The essay highlights key differences, such as the speed and weight of the ball/shuttlecock, court dynamics, and the stamina required from players. It analyzes statistical data from matches to illustrate the physical exertion involved in each sport, emphasizing the faster pace and greater distance covered in badminton. Additionally, the essay touches upon the financial aspects, contrasting the prize money available in tennis with the lesser rewards in badminton. The author concludes that badminton presents a greater challenge due to its fast-paced nature and the physical fitness required, despite the higher financial incentives in tennis. The essay supports its claims with references to relevant research and match statistics.

Running head: ENGLISH
English
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The purpose of this essay is to develop the idea and the comparison between the two
racket sports that have dominated the world sports. These are the tennis and badminton. The
several areas in which the two sports can be compared would be discussed in this essay. Both the
sports are very much popular and both are included in the Olympic Games. The most important
factors that could challenge the players are the main points for the comparison and contrast. In
this essay the challenging facts for the both the sports would be discussed (Torres-Luque et al.,
2015). It is very much important to discuss whether tennis is more challenging in terms of
competition, prize money, international or badminton. The question is which game is more
challenging, Tennis or badminton? The answer is definitely badminton since it is lot more
competitive than tennis in various aspects.
Comparison and contrast between two sports
Before beginning this essay, it must be mentioned that the stamina needed for playing
badminton by the players is much more than the tennis players. It is because the match intensity
between these two sports is in favor of badminton since the type of shots, shots taken per rally
and the distance covered by the players is much more than tennis. On the other hand it can be
said that tennis is much more popular in all five continents of the earth whereas the limitation of
badminton is restricted within Europe and mostly Asia (Torres-Luque et al., 2015). However,
there are some other issues as well. The shuttle they play with is much difficult to return than the
tennis balls since it can deviates very fast as per the wind velocity. According to some of the
players and coaches the impact of the game is much higher on the players who play badminton
(Nagasawa et al., 2012).

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As both the sports are played in the similar looking courts, the style of the game would be
something of a similar sort. Both the games are played with a net in the middle. Another
similarity in these two games that both of them are played in hitting back and forth. Tennis is
indeed faster than badminton in many ways. Both of the sports have originated in England and
they follow the strict etiquettes (Torres-Luque et al., 2015). This is where these two sports are
very similar in their nature. Sometimes both the games have been imagined to be considered to
be the same games. However, they are very often deemed as completely different ones.
However, some players have also opined that badminton can be faster than tennis in several ways
since the tennis balls are heavier in weight. While the law of physics is implied it can be said that
tennis is faster because of the weight of the ball. The badminton shuttle or light birdie can be hit
while it is in the air (Castillo-Rodríguez et al., 2014).
In this context it can be said that the tennis balls are heavier and it drops quicker on the
court. The players are even allowed to hit the ball after letting it bounce on the court (Nagasawa
et al., 2012). On the other hand, the players will have to hit or smash the ball when it is in the air.
The players have to make a smash jump and hit the light birdie in the court of the opponent. In
this sport the players will have to use the full weight of the body. Some experts are also of the
opinion the badminton light birdie is even faster than the golf ball. When it comes to measure the
distance covered by the players it is indeed very hard to judge (Castillo-Rodríguez et al., 2014).
It is because the players have to run and pick the ball or the light birdie within the confinement
of the court only. When a tennis game is played in the best two out of three sets it can last up to 3
hours for men. On the contrary, badminton is played in best two out of three sets the game can
last just more than an hour for men. This depicts that time taken for playing badminton is almost
two hours shorter and this indeed is very much challenging indeed (Dines et al., 2015).

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The badminton players must be fitter than the tennis players since the duration of the
game is shorter than tennis and he has to show tremendous reflex power indeed. The game of
badminton is very much fast paced and high speed as well. The instance of two matches can be
given by comparing the statistics (Castillo-Rodríguez et al., 2014). The tennis match between
Boris Becker and Kevin Curren in All England Championship and the match between Han Jian
and Morten Frost can be used as a solid example. The tennis match continued for 3 hours 18
minutes and the badminton match continued for 1 hour 16 minutes. The covered distance for
both the players in the tennis match was 3.2 km in 3 hours 18 minutes. On the other hand the
covered distance between the two players in the badminton match was about 6.4 km in just 1
hour 16 minutes game. This means the players must be faster and possess a great amount of
reflex to cope up with the difficult challenges (Fernandez-Fernandez et al., 2013). The number of
blows in the tennis match was 1004 compared to that of 1972 of the badminton match.
However, tennis is much ahead in the prize purses for the players. The prize money in
tennis is much higher than that of badminton. If a player wins the Wimbledon he or she can get
up to 3 million dollars as the prize money i.e. much higher than that of badminton. The prize
money for winning the biggest badminton events is nowhere in comparison with the other sports.
The professional players in the other sports are very much able to support themselves by winning
the championship competitions (Fernandez-Fernandez et al., 2013). However, the badminton
players would always need the support the several endorsements and the financial supports so
they can continue their game properly. The players know very well that the badminton is much
harder than tennis in several ways. The tennis rackets might be heavier but the lighter badminton
tennis rackets would move much faster and much regularly than tennis. In this context, it can be
said that a tennis player would almost be dead after playing a 5 hour long badminton match. The

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tennis matches have been very long like many classic matches between Roger Federer and
Rafael Nadal. This means that the badminton players must be fitter to complete the matches till
the end. Thus badminton has been proven to be much difficult game than tennis.
Conclusion
The essay can be concluded by saying that the comparisons and contrasts have been made
between the two important racket games like tennis and badminton. It has been found after the
discussion on several terms that badminton is a much difficult game than tennis. The
comparisons have been made on the statistics between two classic matches. The players of
badminton face most difficult challenges in the courts compared to that of the tennis. Thus
badminton has been proven to be a much superior game than tennis.

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References and Bibliography
Castillo-Rodríguez, A., Alvero-Cruz, J. R., Hernández-Mendo, A., & Fernández-García, J. C.
(2014). Physical and physiological responses in Paddle Tennis competition. International
Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 14(2), 524-534.
Dines, J. S., Bedi, A., Williams, P. N., Dodson, C. C., Ellenbecker, T. S., Altchek, D. W., ... &
Dines, D. M. (2015). Tennis injuries: epidemiology, pathophysiology, and
treatment. JAAOS-Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 23(3),
181-189.
El-Gizawy, H., & Akl, A. R. (2014). Relationship between reaction time and deception type
during smash in badminton. J Sport Res, 1, 49-56.
Fernandez-Fernandez, J., Jose, G., Moya-Ramon, M., Cabello-Manrique, D., & Mendez-
Villanueva, A. (2013). Gender differences in game responses during badminton match
play. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 27(9), 2396-2404.
Fernandez-Fernandez, J., Ulbricht, A., & Ferrauti, A. (2014). Fitness testing of tennis players:
How valuable is it?. Br J Sports Med, 48(Suppl 1), i22-i31.
Nadzalan, A. M., Mohamad, N. I., Lee, J. L. F., & Chinnasee, C. (2018). Relationship between
muscle architecture and badminton-specific physical abilities. Human
Movement, 2018(1), 44-50.
Nagasawa, M., Hatori, Y., Kakuta, M., Hayashi, T., & Sekine, Y. (2012, November). Smash
motion analysis for badminton from image. In Proceeding of IIEEJ 3rd Image
Electronics and Visual Computing Workshop.

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Phomsoupha, M. I. C. H. A. E. L., & Laffaye, G. U. I. L. L. A. U. M. E. (2014). Shuttlecock
velocity during a smash stroke in badminton evolves linearly with skill level. Computer
methods in biomechanics and biomedical engineering, 17(sup1), 140-141.
Torres-Luque, G., Ramirez, A., Cabello-Manrique, D., Nikolaidis, T. P., & Alvero-Cruz, J. R.
(2015). Match analysis of elite players during paddle tennis competition. International
Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 15(3), 1135-1144.
Yu, J., & Zhao, G. (2013). Study on badminton smash for training based on sensor.
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