Senescent declines in elite tennis players are similar across the sexes. (27th August 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sutter, Andreas; Barton, Sam; Sharma, Manmohan Dev; Basellini, Ugofilippo; Hosken, David J; Archer, C Ruth
• Is Part Of: Behavioral ecology. Volume 29:Number 6(2018)
• Page Start: 1351
• Page End: 1358
• Publication Date: 2018-08-27
• Subjects: aging -- functional senescence -- sexual selection -- sport -- tennis; Animal behavior -- Periodicals; Behavior evolution -- Periodicals; Ecology -- Periodicals; Psychology, Comparative -- Periodicals; 591.5
• DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ary112
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1045-2249

Abstract

Abstract : Men and women age at different tempos: women live longer than men but stop reproducing earlier and are less healthy late in life. Here, we tested whether these sex differences extend to functional senescence in elite tennis players. We find a clear signature of aging but surprisingly, men and women show similar patterns of performance-decline. We discuss what this reveals about sex-specific aging and how well elite athletes characterize aging in the wider population. Abstract: Aging is characterized by rising mortality, declining fertility and declines in physiological function with age (functional senescence). Sex differences in the tempo and severity of survival and fertility declines are widespread, but it is less clear how often and how much trajectories of functional senescence diverge between the sexes. We tested how physiological function changed with age in male and female elite tennis players using first-serve speed (power) and first-serve accuracy as performance measures. We found absolute differences between the sexes with men serving faster, but less accurately than women. Both power and accuracy showed senescent declines but these began earlier for power. There were signals of trait-compensation, where players with pronounced power declines showed relative increases in accuracy, which might partially buffer against power deterioration. However, there were no sex differences in how either trait changed with age, contrasting with other sports. Sex differences in functional senescence are probably shaped by interactions between natural and sexual selection, the proximate costs of trait expression and a trait's genetic architecture, and so are highly trait-specific. We discuss the strengths and potential pitfalls of using data from elite athletes to disentangle these complex interactions.