Tennis paper backs weekly RPE monitoring

Researchers led by Diego Mendez analysed retrospective weekly ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) to evaluate a simple monitoring method for professional tennis players, the paper stated on Wednesday. (data.mendeley.com) ### How many players did the study follow and over what period? The study tracked eight professional tennis players across one competitive season, according to the authors' data release. (data.mendeley.com) The dataset available on Mendeley Data comprises session RPE entries and session durations collected across weekly microcycles, the repository record shows. ### What specific RPE measures did the researchers compare? Diego Mendez and co‑authors compared weekly mean session‑RPE (mRPE), calculated from multiple session reports, with a single weekly retrospective RPE reported on the last day of the week (wRPE). (data.mendeley.com) The team also derived weekly training‑load scores by multiplying sRPE by session duration for both mRPE and wRPE to assess week‑to‑week percentage changes, the dataset description says. ### What did the paper conclude about weekly retrospective RPE (wRPE)? The authors reported that wRPE closely tracked weekly mRPE trends and argued wRPE could serve as a practical, low‑cost tool for monitoring training‑load trends across match cycles. (data.mendeley.com) The paper’s materials note that a single end‑of‑week retrospective rating simplified data collection while retaining signal for week‑to‑week load monitoring in this sample, the authors wrote. ### How does this fit with existing evidence on session‑RPE? A 2017 Frontiers review and other validation studies have found session‑RPE (sRPE) to be a valid, low‑cost indicator of internal training load across multiple sports, the literature shows. (data.mendeley.com) MDPI and other journals have previously published work demonstrating strong correlations between sRPE‑derived load and physiological or GPS‑based external load measures, the peer‑reviewed record indicates. ### What do the authors recommend for teams and practitioners? The paper’s authors recommend teams use weekly retrospective RPE to monitor load trends and flag notable week‑to‑week changes as part of a broader monitoring strategy, the study materials state. (data.mendeley.com) The authors also suggested that wRPE could be valuable for budgets or settings where continuous wearable data are unavailable, while cautioning that further validation in larger samples is needed, according to the dataset notes. (frontiersin.org) ### Where can practitioners access the data and methods? The study’s data files and an Excel sheet of RPE entries were published on Mendeley Data under the title "Weekly RPE in tennis" with DOI 10.17632/xhjt3fmggy.1 on 29 October 2025, the repository listing shows. (mdpi.com) MDPI’s Sports journal lists the study as associated material on its platform; readers can consult the journal’s site for the full article and supporting files. (data.mendeley.com) The dataset and supplemental files remain publicly available on Mendeley Data (DOI 10.17632/xhjt3fmggy.1), published 29 Oct. 2025, for teams or researchers who plan to test weekly RPE protocols in upcoming tournament blocks. (data.mendeley.com) (mdpi.com)