Gulyas ran 19miles in 3 sets

[Peter Szucs]

I just read that a former Hungarian Pro who in his prime was in the top 10 in the 60's once run over 30kms during 3 sets against Newcombe. He was Istvan Gulyas and ended up winning the match. Newcombe later said that he was completely stunned by this physical performance. Gulyas also won lot of 5setters in which it often happened that he ran over 40kms... How much do you think the recent clay court specialists run in a match?

[zapvor]

wow thats pretty amazing...i wonder how much i run...

[tangoll]

I wonder if that's possible? Let's assume the 3 sets took about 2.5 - 3 hours. In a set of singles, over 1 hour, the actual time the ball is in play and the players running is only about 10 minutes per that one hour. So in 3 hours, 0.5 hour or 30 minutes is spent running, and 2.5 hours is spent walking around, waiting, sitting during changeovers, etc. Let's further assume that during the 2.5 hours, a total of 3 miles out of the 19 is spent walking around.

That means in 30 minutes of actual ball in play, the player ran 16 miles. That's like a 2 minute mile, whereas the world record for a mile run is now, what, 3 minute 45 seconds?

So I think the premise that Gulyas ran 19 miles over a 3 set match is probably not possible. But it would be interesting to see any analysis done on how much running or aerobic activity is done during a singles match at the pro level.