ArticleBMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation2024
Does mental fatigue affect performance in racket sports? A systematic review.
Article in BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Does music counteract mental fatigue? A systematic review.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- The effects of mental fatigue and caffeine on basketball performance: insights from a crossover study.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2025Trial
- Integrative Nutritional Strategies for Performance, Recovery, and Weight Management in Taekwondo.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Identifying neuromuscular and mental fatigue in elite youth table tennis players using machine learning.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Synergistic effects of physical-mental mixed fatigue on badminton forehand smash performance.PloS one · 2026Article
- Effects of mental fatigue on agility and coordination in female soccer players under high ambient temperature.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Cognitive Fatigue Disrupts Explosive Performance and Vigilance in Trained Individuals.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- International Ski and Snowboard Federation consensus statement on warm-up and cool-down in competitive alpine and freestyle skiers and snowboarders.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- External training load and rating of perceived exertion comparison between different playing styles and winning vs. losing matches in elite tennis.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Article
- Impact of mental fatigue on tennis players' attention and groundstroke performance.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mental fatigue impairs performance across several sports domains. However, a systematic review on its effects on racket sports performance has been lacking due to the previous scarcity of studies. This review aims to provide a comprehensive review the effects of mental fatigue on racket players' performance, with a discussion of the underlying mechanisms. A thorough search was conducted across five databases, including Web of Science, PubMed, SCOPUS, SPORTDiscus (via EBSCOhost), and the Psychological and Behavioral Science Collection (via EBSCOhost). The PICOS framework established the inclusion criteria: (1) healthy racket sports players; (2) induction of mental fatigue in both field and laboratory settings; (3) comparison of mental fatigue interventions with a control group (e.g., watching a movie or reading a magazine); (4) assessment of performance outcomes, including physical performance, skilled performance, and perceptual-cognitive performance; and (5) randomized controlled trials (RCTs), non-randomized controlled trials (non-RCTs), and non-randomized non-controlled trials. Mental fatigue manipulation, subjective evaluation, and (neuro)physiological markers were synthesized to support the successful induction of mental fatigue. Performance was categorized into tennis, table tennis, badminton, and padel based on the characteristics of specific racket sports domains. Secondary outcomes, such as the rate perception of effort (RPE) and motivation, were synthesized to explain the mechanisms based on the prominent theory of the Psychobiological model of endurance performance. Six studies revealed that mental fatigue impacts stroke performance in table tennis, affecting speed, accuracy, faults, and only second-serve accuracy in tennis. The response time of psychomotor performance increased in table tennis, padel, and badminton. Meanwhile, mental fatigue increased the RPE and remained unchanged in heart rate, blood glucose, and lactate, consistent with the Psychobiological model of endurance performance. Additionally, attention is suggested as a significant underlying psychobiological factor.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.