Badminton vs. Tennis

Badminton vs. Tennis

Statistics don't lie. The speed and the stamina required for badminton are far greater than for any other racket sport. At the 1985 All England (Tennis) Championships, Boris Becker defeated Kevin Curren 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4. At the 1985 World Badminton Championships in Calgary, Canada, Han Jian of China defeated Morten Frost of Denmark, 14-18, 15-10, 15-8. The following is a statistical comparison of those matches.

   Tennis   Badminton

Time:     3 hrs & 18 mins   1 hr & 16 mins

Ball/Shuttle in Play:   18 mins    37 mins

Match Intensity*:   9 percent    48 percent

Rallies:    299     146

Shots:    1,004     1,972

Shots Per Rally:   3.4     3.5

Distance Covered:   2 miles    4 miles

* The actual time the ball/shuttle was in flight, divided by the length of the match.

Note that the badminton players competed for half the time, yet ran twice as far and hit nearly twice as many shots.