Book the session you can prepare for properly—not the hour a headline calls “optimal”. For a player near Fitzrovia or Marylebone, that means checking the court, allowing time to warm up and deciding what the session is meant to achieve.
Lunchtime can be convenient. It is not established as everyone's peak-power window. Some performance tests favour later in the day, but a faster serve and a better tennis session are not the same thing.
Start with the current court information
The Royal Parks' tennis page currently lists 12 courts at Regent's Park, ten floodlit. It says courts can be booked up to seven days ahead, with new availability released daily at 7am. Prices vary by peak and off-peak periods.
Use that official page to reach the current booking system. Check your selected court, lighting, price, access and weather arrangements before paying. Floodlights do not mean every court is lit or that every evening slot is available. A peak-price booking is not a biological peak-performance window.
If you need instruction rather than a court, the operator lists adult classes, courses and private coaching. Choose the appropriate level. Tempo's role here is physical preparation alongside tennis, not court booking or stroke coaching.
Is afternoon tennis better for power?
There is a reasonable signal, not a universal appointment time.
A study of 13 highly competitive male players compared tests at 09:00 and 16:30 after a standardised warm-up. Serve speed, jumping, agility and short-sprint performance were better in the afternoon; handgrip strength was not. It did not test lunchtime, recreational players as a group or match wins.
A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis also found later-day advantages in several maximal performance tests. However, individual-study risk of bias was moderately high. Those tests cannot identify your personal best court slot.
There is also a useful warning about chasing speed. In an older study of six competitive players, first serves were fastest but least accurate at 18:00. Second-serve speed and accuracy did not show the same time-of-day effect. The sample was tiny, but it illustrates why ball speed alone is an incomplete target.
My coaching recommendation: if two slots are equally practical, try the later one for a demanding session and compare how well you play. Do not sacrifice sleep, preparation or regular attendance to chase a group average.
Choose the slot for the job
| Your situation | Practical decision |
|---|---|
| You are learning or rebuilding confidence | Choose suitable coaching and enough unhurried time. Do not chase maximum serve speed. |
| Lunch is your reliable opening | Count travel, changing and warm-up before deciding how much court time fits. |
| You can choose between two equally workable slots | Compare repeated sessions, including accuracy and movement—not just how powerful you feel. |
| An upcoming match has a fixed start | Rehearse the arrival and preparation routine for that start time. |
| You want to play after work | Confirm lighting and access for the actual booking; do not assume general park access covers your session. |
These are planning recommendations, not a scientifically validated ranking of booking times.
Arrive ready—not just on time
The LTA's match-preparation guidance recommends arriving early, using dynamic movements and allowing time to prepare your shots.
Build from easy movement to controlled tennis movements and progressively firmer hitting. Do not start with maximal serves or all-out changes of direction. Adapt preparation to your experience, the conditions and any clinical instructions. Stop and seek appropriate advice if pain or symptoms make play uncertain.
Warm-up time must exist in the diary. It is not whatever remains after a late meeting.
Hypothetical example: Your work break is one hour. If both journeys, changing and preparation use 25 minutes in total, only 35 minutes remain for court time—not a full hour. Choose a booking arrangement that genuinely fits, or move the session. Do not claim a lunchtime performance advantage to justify a rushed plan.
Keep court work and gym work connected
Write the important court session into the week before adding demanding gym work. If you repeatedly arrive with heavy legs or poor movement, review the preceding workload rather than blaming the clock.
For exercise selection and weekly gym examples, use Tempo's tennis strength-and-conditioning guide. For the separate question of when to lift, read morning versus evening strength training. This guide is about preparing for a local court session, not replacing either programme.
After each of your next three sessions, note: did you arrive prepared, did your chosen practice go well, and what should change next time? Include conditions and unusual fatigue. Three sessions can reveal practical problems; they cannot establish your biological peak.
If you want help fitting strength work around tennis, bring those notes to a Tempo personal-training consultation. Check the Fitzrovia studio's arrival details separately from your court booking.
Local information checked on 21 October 2026. No partnership with The Royal Parks or LTA, personal court visit or specialist tennis-coaching qualification is claimed. This is general training education, not individual medical advice.