Let Sleeping Tennis Players Lie

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Kei Nishikori of Japan plays a backhand volley during his second-round match against Andrey Kuznetsov on Wednesday. Photo: Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images

Paris

Kei Nishikori, the best tennis player in the history of Japan, has many enviable talents. He can clobber forehands. His backhand is a textbook stroke, both compact and powerful. There’s one vital skill, though, that Nishikori has mastered more than any of his peers in tennis: He’s a champion sleeper.

Nishikori, who advanced to the third round of the French Open on Wednesday, sleeps nine to 10 hours a day and usually takes naps. He can sleep in cars, on planes, on couches, in chairs—“Everywhere,” he said. He usually falls asleep in 10 minutes or less. He said he has been this way since childhood.

“I always loved to sleep,” Nishikori said. “If I don’t sleep, I don’t feel energy.”

Recent science on sleep data suggests many of us need more of it. A study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, released earlier this year, said more than a third of Americans do not get enough sleep. Experts recommend at least seven hours a day, though some debate whether sleeping much longer than that might do more harm than good.

Athletes in many sports have woken up to the advice. But for tennis players, developing sound sleep habits can be a chore. Few athletes travel as often or as far, and through as many time zones, as tennis pros. Talented sleepers like Nishikori have an edge. Roger Federer turned heads last year when he said he sleeps nine to 10 hours a night, despite being a father to four kids, but Federer earns enough in prize money and endorsements to travel as comfortably as he wishes. Others, like American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, have to work harder.

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Mattek-Sands travels with a roll-up mattress topper, so her hotel beds feel the same as her mattress at home. She packs sleeping masks and often wears noise-canceling headphones to bed, in case her husband, Justin, snores, or there’s a party, like the New Year’s Eve bash she once had to tune out in Brisbane, Australia.

Mattek-Sands also uses a sleep app. Her phone rests on her bed and the app tracks her sleep (based on her movements) and gives her a rating (it’s a percentage, with the higher number meaning better sleep). The app wakes her up within a half-hour of when she sets her alarm, depending on when she is at her lightest phase of sleep. Mattek-Sands keeps notes on the app about what she has eaten or had to drink, and later studies the data for trends.

“I really feel like a diva—I travel with my own bed!” Mattek-Sands said. “It’s made a big difference.”

Milos Raonic, the 6-foot-5 Canadian, sleeps at least eight hours at night and plans his practices so he can nap for 30 minutes to two hours. He’s an avid reader on sleep theory and is looking forward to Arianna Huffington’s new book, “The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time.”

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American Bethanie Mattek-Sands relies on an app to track her sleep. Photo: Christopher Levy/Zuma Press

“Even a 20-minute nap can make a difference in somebody’s psychology or mental awareness,” Raonic said. “Sleep’s important for reducing inflammation and also recovery. I definitely try to be generous to myself with sleep.”

American Sloane Stephens brings at least two blankets with her on the road. “I’m a germ freak so I have to change my blankets all the time,” she said.

Stephens usually takes a cheetah-print blanket for hotels, to remind her of home. At tournaments, she uses a warm stadium blanket, which has come in very handy at this year’s French Open, where rain made a mess of the first few days and left a lot of time for naps.

“I nap all the time,” Stephens said. “I fall asleep and I don’t know.”

Nishikori said sometimes just resting for a few minutes helps his recovery. “Even if I don’t get to sleep, I just close my eyes and lie down for 10-15 minutes,” he said.

Not all players take their sleep so seriously. Ivo Karlovic, the 6-foot-11 Croat, advanced to the third round at the French Open on Wednesday with a five-set victory that lasted four hours and 31 minutes. Karlovic, 37, said his trainer keeps asking him to sleep more, but he refuses. He is a night owl: He usually goes to bed around 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. and sleeps for eight hours at most, and less when he’s at home (he is married with a daughter).

“I don’t like to take naps because then I feel as if I’m missing the day,” Karlovic said. “When I go to have a nap, I only lose time.”

Even sleep obsessives like Mattek-Sands run into problems. At home, her dog, Ruger, often climbs into bed with her and Justin at night. Ruger is a South African Mastiff. He weighs 140 pounds. He rolls around a lot, rattling Mattek-Sands’s phone and messing with the tracking function of her sleep app.

“I got 60% because of Ruger,” she said. “He brings the percentage down the most.”