Pickleball vs Tennis? Which is more tiring?…

As a Pickleball player and convert from Tennis, one of the questions I get asked the most would be “which is more tiring of the two sports”? 

Well, as with many answers that everyone seems to love, the answer is, it depends. 

If you are comparing a single tennis match to a single Pickleball match, of course there are many variables that go into each, but almost always, that tennis match will be more physically demanding than the single Pickleball match. 

However, if you compare one day of tennis where you might play 1-2 matches vs a day of Pickleball where you can play anywhere from 4-7 matches, I would almost always say that the day of Pickleball is more strenuous and demanding than the day of tennis.

Since I have played both at a high level, I have noticed that the movement in tennis, is much more fluid and flowly. The tennis court is bigger, which allows for longer strides to hit the ball and to recover. Also, there is generally more time from when you hit the ball to the opponent and when they hit it back to you…more time to react. In contrast to Pickleball, where the court is much smaller, the movement required in Pickleball is oftentimes much more sharp and agile, and the time between when you hit it and your opponent hits it back, tends to be much smaller simply due to the distance from your opponent. 

What are your thoughts, do you agree with this or not?