Tennis is a great sport for getting at all the muscles too. There are guys at the clubs in their 70’s who are more agile than a lot of fellas in their 30’s and 40’s.
Stretching only reaches the tissues you already have access to.
Chronic stiffness and dehydration in the fascia do not come from a lack of stretching. They come from pattern overload. When the same muscles are doing all the work, other tissues shut down and dry out.
If you stretch without correcting those patterns, you are just pulling on what is already available, not what actually needs hydration. Over time that reinforces imbalance and leaves the dysfunctional areas even more dehydrated.
Stretching only rehydrates tissue when it is the result of balanced, well organized contractions. Without that balance, flexibility becomes another form of compensation.
https://blossom.primal.net/cfbaff03f355f3900652fa8fd6aea8e6f8a12f0d4d2d4094e7da47f449955067.mov
Discussion
Yeah the only thing about tennis is it tends to build too much asymmetry - it doesn’t have to be that way but that’s just the way it’s traditionally played, it creates a lot of side dominance. But it’s definitely a high-pace, athletic sport.