Elite tennis now treats recovery as a competitive advantage. From screenless wearables to temperature-controlled sleep systems, players and teams are quantifying readiness in ways that would have seemed futuristic only a decade ago.

Aryna Sabalenka’s Sunshine Double run offered a clear example. Using WHOOP, she logged consistently high recovery scores through the Miami Open, with WHOOP CEO Will Ahmed later noting, “This is very hard to do given the strain of the matches and the pressure of the finals. Impressive,” Ahmed wrote. WHOOP’s morning recovery metric combines heart rate variability, resting heart rate, sleep quality, and respiratory rate to estimate preparedness for strain.

Long before wearables were common, Novak Djokovic invested in recovery innovation. He used the CVAC Pod and more recently the Regensis system. Djokovic also entered the wearable space by partnering with Incrediwear on therapeutic sleeves. Taylor Fritz has taken a different route, prioritizing sleep with a high-tech Eight Sleep mattress cover that adjusts temperature and records biometric data. “It makes a huge difference for me when I have it,” Fritz said. “It’s great to see all the data. I feel like I sleep a lot better.” He added, “It’s not easy to bring,” he added. “If it’s a big tournament, like a Grand Slam week or something, then we’ll have one ready where I’m going. This week (in Miami), obviously it’s just at home. Otherwise, sometimes I just don’t have it.” Fritz became an Eight Sleep investor in 2024, and Djokovic collaborated with Incrediwear in 2026.

The sport’s governing bodies have adapted unevenly. The WTA partnered with WHOOP in 2021, while the ATP approved wearables across its tours in 2024. Grand Slam rules remain separate: at the 2026 Australian Open, players were asked to remove WHOOP devices mid-tournament, affecting athletes including Aryna Sabalenka, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. “There is certain data we would like to track a little bit on court,” Sinner said afterward. “It’s not for the live thing. It’s more about what you can see after the match.”

Voices inside the sport warn about information overload. “It’s not like the player is looking at that information when they’re playing,” Puig said. “It’s not like your coach is going to be saying, Oh my gosh your heart rate is X! You need to get it down to Y!”

“It’s more so just information that they can take to better themselves for the upcoming days.” Early research, including a 2025 study of 100 professionals, found measurable gains in stress management and recovery. Still, players stress that basics remain essential: “Of course, you need the ice bath and stretching and massages,” she said. “But there’s so much you can do off court, even at the hotel, that can make a big difference.” Looking ahead, predictive models and AI could personalize recovery further, but the underlying routines will endure.

Less than a year after stepping away from professional tennis, former world No. 4 Caroline Garcia and her husband, Borja Duran, announced they are expecting their first child. The couple shared the news in a joint social-media post showing them walking along the beach at the Hotel Fairmont Mayakoba Riviera Maya in Mexico, wearing blue and holding sonogram photos. The images and caption made clear they wanted to celebrate the moment together.

Garcia, 32, married Duran last summer in Spain. The pair have also collaborated off court as producers of the “Tennis Insider Club” podcast, which debuted in 2024, and the new arrival will be the first family addition since they launched the show.

Reaction from peers in the WTA community was warm. The news was received positively by players including Paula Badosa, Barbora Krejcikova and Jasmine Paolini, along with former world No. 1 Garbiñe Muguruza, who just had a son, and Ons Jabeur, who will welcome a son next month. Those responses underscored Garcia’s standing among colleagues and the wider women’s tour.

The couple did not explicitly state the baby’s gender, though their coordinated blue outfits in the announcement photos prompted speculation. Beyond the public announcement, the post focused on family and the next chapter of life away from the weekly demands of tour travel.

For Garcia, who reached a career-high ranking of world No. 4, this marks a significant personal milestone in the months after retirement. For listeners of their podcast, and for followers who have tracked her career, the pregnancy announcement is a reminder that many athletes reshape their priorities after leaving the tour. Garcia and Duran’s joint reveal blends personal joy with the same direct, collaborative approach they brought to their media project.

Ons Jabeur has made clear she plans to resume her career on the WTA tour after becoming a mother. The Tunisian, who is expecting her first child, a son, next month, spoke about parenthood in a maternity-focused feature in the March issue of Vogue Arabia.

In an interview with Christine van Deemter for Arab Mother’s Day, celebrated on March 21, Jabeur reflected on the transition ahead. “I want to give myself the time to see how my body will react,” she says, and she told the magazine she wants to “compete for a couple of more years.” She described preparing for parenthood as “a journey full of surprises” shared with her husband Karim Kamoun, and said advice from former world No. 1 Kim Clijsters has helped her prepare to be a mother while remaining on the tour.

Jabeur has long been open about her hopes for a family. In a 2023 documentary she said losing that year’s Wimbledon final to Marketa Vondrousova was particularly painful because she had hoped a victory would allow her to get pregnant and take maternity leave. “So not only not winning Wimbledon, but the idea of having a baby vanished with the trophy,” she said then.

Now, weeks before she is due to become a parent, Jabeur put the sport in perspective. “I always knew that tennis is important, but not the most important thing in life,” she says now, just weeks ahead of welcoming “the best title I won in my life.” She added, “I always say my game reflects my character,” and continued: “That’s who I am. Being a kid is fun, and I want our son to have that. I want him to be creative, to make jokes. Most important is that he’s a good person and makes a change in the world.”

The feature also touches on figurative motherhood in Jabeur’s plans to influence the next generation through her new eponymous foundation and tennis academy in Dubai.