What grades do you need to be a tennis player?

Answer 1

It depends how good of a tennis player you are.

If you are the absolute best tennis player in your country, win the top junior events and plan to join the ATP tour straight out of high school (Roger Federer), you don't need much in the way of grades at all. Tennis is your life, not school.

If you are one of the best tennis players in your state, win or do well in a lot of top junior events and plan to play college tennis (and maybe play pro later; James Blake), you're going to need some pretty decent grades. For a college to give you an athletic scholarship to play tennis, you're going to need something in the ballpark of a 3.0 GPA, more or less depending on your tennis ability and the colleges you apply to.

Remember, however, that there are millions of junior tennis players. There are only thousands of college tennis positions, and hundreds of people on the pro tour. Don't assume that you'll get into either; no matter how important tennis is to you, have a backup plan - something you're interested in academically. Due to their athleticism and love for sports, many tennis players go into physical therapy or sports training degrees in college, letting them continue to be close to tennis even if they don't get to play professionally.