Daria Saville, Casper Ruud welcome Sense Arena into tennis space as essential training tool

FLASHBACK: This time last year, Daria Saville confirmed an ACL injury after her retirement against Naomi Osaka in Tokyo.

For Daria Saville, getting sufficient court time has been a struggle with her recent ACL injuries. Her recovery was instead supplemented by with a lot of off-court training, including, most intriguingly VR tennis simulation thanks to Sense Arena.

“I finished my gym session, and I brought it to work on my tennis game off court because it’s a controlled environment,” Saville said at the ATP Tour Sense Arena Launch event. “I tried every game in there. I spent maybe three hours because I got too competitive, and then my coaches said okay, yes, it’s a controlled environment but you’re still very much injured.”

Sense Arena is the world leader in virtual reality tennis training, and has announced a new partnership with the ATP Tour to improve athletic performance through mental visualization and preparation.

Their joint ATP Tour Sense Arena platform is powered by a Meta Quest 2 Headset, paired with a haptic racquet, and offers innovative training experiences for players worldwide.

“Whether it’s on the ATP Tour or at any level of the game, the difference between winning and losing often comes down to mental fortitude and preparation,” said ATP CEO, Massimo Calvelli.

Top 100 singles and Top 25 doubles players on tour will receive complimentary access to this training platform. Casper Ruud, for one, was excited to try it out for himself.

The 2022 US Open runner-up especially enjoys the game-changing advantages in the new Master Your Return integration, which enables users to practice against real serves against virtual opponents as the feature is powered by real match data from both the ATP and WTA tours.

“It’s not playing tennis, I’ve played tennis since 3, 4 years old,” Ruud said. “That feeling will never be replaced, but this is definitely the closest I’ve ever felt to playing tennis outside the court.”

Although the virtual training is being developed for every player level, when it comes to the professional game, mere inches is all it takes to have the advantage.

As Saville heads into her first-round US Open match against American Clervie Ngounoue, she’s hoping VR tennis is exactly the cutting edge mental training that will move her one step closer to a deep run in Flushing Meadows.