At 5’8 and weighing just 120lbs Agnieszka Radwanska‘s waif-like frame bears more resemblance to most supermodels than a professional tennis player. Yet despite conceding many pounds in muscle to her main rivals, she’s managed to flourish in this most physically demanding of eras, a lightweight whose quick-witted, fleet-footed approach has enabled her to dance rings round the grunting heavyweights of the women’s game.



It’s a style which is reminiscent of Martina Hingis, so much so that Radwanska admits she’s a little tired of the comparisons but it makes her one of the most watchable players on the WTA Tour.

Andy Murray, himself a proponent of touch and a more cerebral approach to the game, has named Radwanska as one of his favourite players to watch.



But as delightful as she is, Radwanska has fallen just short at the majors on a number of occasions, losing out to the brute force of Sabine Lisicki in the Wimbledon semi-finals this year and some have wondered whether she would be even more effective if she combined her tennis brain with a little more oomph in her serve and groundstrokes.



Jean-Pierre Bruyere is a chiropractor and physio who’s worked with Murray and Victoria Azarenka for many years.

He’s long been an admirer of the way Radwanska plays.

“She’s different from the other players,” he says. “She has a very good understanding of the game and she uses the power of the other player extremely well.

She’s not as tall as other players [Azarenka, Williams and Sharapova are all at least 6 foot] but she compensates through an unbelievable view of the game, compared to the others. I think she’s extremely talented.”



However he’s not necessarily convinced that having more muscle would benefit Radwanska.

“That would be the million dollar question. If we make her bigger, is she going to play better?” he muses. “Does her game need to be more powerful? There are a lot of questions. I think that so many times in the business of tennis there are people that say ‘oh, you’re too skinny’ or ‘you need to be bigger’ and it can lead to disaster.

I think it's a very individual thing and I don’t like it when people generalize what players need to be.”

Bruyere believes that the performance of a player is down to the way their muscles function rather than the size of their muscles, citing Usain Bolt as a case in point.



“If you look at the sprinters, 10 years ago one would have said that you need to be very bulky and relatively short to be a good sprinter.

Now, we have the opposite. We have a guy who’s very tall and fairly skinny compared to the other guys and he’s the fastest in the world. The function of his body is about as perfect as you can get. He doesn’t have the biggest muscles but he’s able to use from his toes to the top of his head, his body better than anyone else at the moment.”



“A lot of the time we are looking at players and trying to stereotype them.

When we see someone leaner like Gilles Simon, we think these guys are not strong enough for the game. The problem is we are looking and judging on the appearance of the person. The most important thing is to look at the person’s ability, what they are able to do.

In tennis, you may have bulky muscles or you may not have bulky muscles, but if you get them to function perfectly you will have an unbelievable edge on the court.”



Bruyere also suspects that Radwanska may not want to bulk up for more aesthetic reasons.

“The other question is does she want to be bigger because the look for the girl is an imperative thing,” he says. “I feel female players are always judged on how they look unless we’re talking about people who are really into tennis and think more about how the person plays.

Sadly a part of the female game is about being sexy and I think that the girls are very aware of that.”



However the solution to Radwanska’s quest for Grand Slam glory may lie in a more aggressive approach on the big points and perhaps developing a mental toughness which simply comes with experience on the big stage.

Neither Djokovic or Murray are built like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Gael Monfils, two of the most muscular men on the tour, but they became Grand Slam champions (and in Djokovic’s case, a serial winner) by developing an inner steel.



Bruyere believes that Djokovic and Roger Federer have the best muscle function in the men’s game which is why they move so well and sustain injuries so infrequently.



“If you’re going to look at somebody like Djokovic in more detail, you see that he’s unbelievably co-ordinated, very flexible and very balanced,” he says.

“I think Djokovic and Federer are the two best players in the way they move. With Federer, it’s smooth, it’s beautiful and everything he does is effortless. Djokovic exerts a little bit more effort around the court but his abilities on court are just amazing.

The things he does with his ankles when he slides from side to side, people would normally say don’t do that because you’ll hurt yourself but he’s able to get away with it.”