Monica Puig on why tennis players need more data—and less fear of it

Monica Puig understands performance from just about every angle.

The Puerto Rican Olympic gold medalist was known as one of the fittest players on the WTA Tour during her career, building her game around relentless athleticism and “Pica Power”—her personal mantra for wearing opponents down point by point. Since retiring in 2022, Puig has traded pro tennis for a new challenge: endurance sports, completing marathons and triathlons, including grueling IRONMAN races.

Now a Tennis Channel analyst and self-described tech enthusiast, Puig has become immersed in the world of performance tracking—testing everything from WHOOP to Garmin to COROS as she trains and recovers.

“I’ve tried it all!” she tells Tennis.com in Miami.

In our conversation with the Olympic champion, marathoner and new mom, Puig shared her thoughts on the future of wearable tech, balancing data with instinct, and why more information can be a powerful tool—if used correctly.

Read More: Game Plan 2.0: How tech is changing match preparation in tennis

Q. How did you and your team prepare for matches? What kind of data did you have access to?

PUIG: I did wear the WHOOP for a while, but that was back before you could wear it on a match court. I know there’s been some back and forth about whether you can at certain tournaments.

I would wear the WHOOP, but I wouldn’t take the information for myself. My fitness trainer was the one who had the app on his phone and had my WHOOP paired to his phone…

We did it that way because I noticed, especially as I got older, that the data can really start to affect your thoughts. Sometimes you might have a really good night’s sleep but the WHOOP says differently, it says you didn’t recover enough. So then you’ll already be preconditioned, like, Oh, okay maybe I really am tired.

I feel like it really depends on how you look at it and what your mindset is. It could help some players, but I just let the people who were in charge of looking after my body in that way to handle the data and then adjust things accordingly based on how they see me and the information that they had.

Q. Now that players are able to access so much more data and can track their performance 24/7, it seems like it’s tougher for players and coaches to find that balance.

PUIG: It’s a fine line. If you’re really responsible with the information that you receive you can kind of just treat it as it is, which is a number...

If you’re the type of player who gets a little bit too obsessed with the numbers, hand it off to your team, like I did, and have them kind of make the adjustments. Let someone else take care of it, then you just kind of go along for the ride.

Because the numbers are very good for certain things, but there are also metrics that don’t really help you.

Q. What metrics do you feel were most useful for you as a player?

PUIG: Knowing your fatigue levels… I thought WHOOP was really great with this knowing when you’re getting sick. And showing you how the body reacts differently, whether you drink or not, whether you hydrated enough, whether you had a heavy meal or not—all those things can play a part into your recovery.

Q. So it sounds like you would be for players being able to wear these devices during their matches too, so they can have that information available later?

PUIG: Absolutely. I think it’s really essential, because you can also see the way that your body handles itself in a pressure situation. Your body reacts differently from a match that you win in an hours, versus a match that could go for three hours. And obviously it reacts differently in a match than in practice.

There are so many different factors, and I think nowadays having the information helps you prepare. There’s no reason why it should be concealed from players.

It’s not like the player is looking at that information when they’re playing. 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!’

Q. Casting it forward, where do you see this technology going? For example, will we ever see what a players’ heart rate on break point looked like during a big final? Or something else?

PUIG: I would love that, and I think the WTA did do that when WHOOP was first a partner (back in 2021).

I’ve seen it in golf a couple of times, where it would show a golfer’s heart rate before they teed off. Then you would be like, OK the heart rate is maybe at 130. They’re feeling the stress. Or if the heart rate was in the 90s, OK they’re feeling alright.

It’s kind of cool for the public to understand also the emotional and mental side of it. And then seeing the physical effect of that, seeing how they’re also dealing with stress—maybe their heart rate starts to go up when the crowd starts going crazy or when they’re getting stressed.