Runners and cyclists have Strava. Every outing goes into a log, friends see it and react, and over a season you can watch yourself get faster. Tennis and pickleball players want the same thing, so "Strava for tennis" and "Strava for pickleball" are common searches.
You can record tennis and pickleball in Strava itself. Both are on its list of sport types. But what Strava keeps is the workout: how long you were out there and, if you wear a watch, your heart rate and calories. It has no field for the score or for who was across the net. For a runner, the time is the result. For a tennis player, the score is.
What Strava Keeps From a Tennis Match
Start a tennis or pickleball activity in Strava, or let your watch sync one, and you get:
- Time and date: when you played and for how long
- Effort: heart rate and calories, if a watch or strap recorded them
- A post for your friends: kudos and comments, the same as a run
- Your weekly totals: hours of activity across every sport you log
That's useful if your goal is fitness. Two hours of doubles is real exercise, and seeing it next to your runs is satisfying.
What It Misses
Strava doesn't know:
- The score. A 6-0, 6-0 loss and a three-set win look the same: 1 hour 40 minutes, heart rate 141.
- Who you played. There's no opponent, so there's no record against anyone.
- Whether you won. No win rate, no streaks, no form.
- Your level. Strava has no NTRP, UTR or DUPR and no rating that moves with your results.
- Singles or doubles, the surface, the event. A league match and a casual hit are the same activity type.
The things that make Strava fun for runners (personal records, segment leaderboards, getting faster on the same route) come from GPS and time. Tennis and pickleball are scored by games and points, and the "route" is the player in front of you. So the features that would make it fun for racquet sports have nothing to work from.
What a Strava for Tennis Would Need
Take the Strava idea and rebuild it around matches instead of miles, and you get this list:
| What Strava does for runners | The tennis and pickleball version |
|---|---|
| A log of every run | A log of every match, with the score and the opponent |
| Pace and distance | Wins, losses, sets and how close each match was |
| Personal records | Streaks, best wins, your record by surface and format |
| Fitness trend | A rating that moves after every match |
| Segments and leaderboards | Head-to-head records and court leaderboards |
| Friends and kudos | Friends, challenges and clubs |
| Training log | Practice sessions, drills and lessons |
That is the gap RecAce was built for.
How RecAce Fills It
RecAce is a free match tracker for tennis and pickleball. Think of it as the match diary Strava doesn't keep.
Log a match in seconds
Tap the mic and say it: "Beat Carl 6-4, 7-5 at the club, my second serve held up." RecAce fills in the opponent, score and result, keeps the rest as your notes, and saves nothing until you check it. If you'd rather tap, the score boxes take about ten seconds. Singles, doubles, pro sets and match tiebreaks all work.
A rating that moves
Every match updates your rating, the way your fitness trend moves on Strava. Beating someone above you counts for more than beating someone you always beat. You can start from your NTRP or UTR level so it means something from day one.
Rivalries instead of segments
Tap any opponent and see your whole history against them: the record, the last five results, sets won, every meeting and the notes you wrote after each one. Pro adds your odds for the next match. This is the part runners don't get, because nobody runs against the same person every Tuesday. Tennis and pickleball players do.
Friends, challenges and clubs
Add friends and see what they played this week. Challenge a rival to a best-of series and keep the score as you play it. Start a club with an invite code and RecAce keeps the standings for the month, which is a good fit for a ladder league. Court leaderboards rank the people who play your courts, if they opt in. All of this is free.
A training log for the court
The Practice tab counts lessons, drills, clinics and open play against a weekly goal, shows how many weeks in a row you've kept it up, and tracks a drill score over time. Whether that practice shows up in your results is one of the questions RecAce answers, and it's covered in more detail in is your tennis practice actually helping?
A profile to share
Your player card at recace.com/u/yourname shows your record, last ten results and titles. You decide what's on it, and it's private until you switch it on.
Strava keeps the workout. RecAce keeps the match.
Log your last match in about a minute and your record, rating and rivalries build from there. Tennis and pickleball in one account, free.
Start Your Match Log FreeWhere Strava Is Still Better
Strava has two things a match tracker doesn't try to do:
- Heart rate and effort. If you wear a watch, Strava (or Garmin Connect, or Apple Fitness) is where that data lives. RecAce doesn't read watch data.
- Everything that isn't tennis. If you also run and ride, Strava shows your whole week of training in one place.
So for many players the answer is both. Let your watch send the workout to Strava, and log the match in RecAce. One tells you how hard you worked. The other tells you who you beat, how close it was, and how you've done against that person over the last two years. A Strava connection is coming soon: save a match in RecAce and the score lands on the workout your watch already sent to Strava, so your friends see who you beat, not just how long you played.
Who This Is For
If you play mostly for exercise and don't care who wins, Strava is enough. If any of these sound like you, you want a match log:
- You play the same group of people every week and want to know where you stand against each of them
- You play USTA league, a ladder or open play and want to see whether you're moving up
- You play both tennis and pickleball and want one app for both
- You've ever said "I always lose to this guy" and wanted to know if it's true
Quick Answers
Can Strava track tennis? Yes, as an activity. Tennis and pickleball are both Strava sport types, so you can record the time and, with a watch, heart rate and calories. Strava doesn't record the score, the opponent or the result.
Is there a Strava for pickleball? Not from Strava itself. For a pickleball match log with scores, opponents, a rating and friends, RecAce does that for free, in the same account as tennis.
What is the best Strava alternative for tennis? It depends on what you want from Strava. For a feed of workouts, Strava already handles tennis. For a record of matches, rivalries and progress, use a match tracker like RecAce. Our comparison of tennis tracking apps covers the options.
Does RecAce sync with Strava? Not yet. A Strava connection is coming soon that adds your match score to the workout on Strava. Until then, many players use both: Strava for the workout, RecAce for the match.
Is RecAce free? Yes. Unlimited matches, your rating, head-to-head records, practice tracking, friends, challenges, clubs and a public player card are all free. Pro adds odds against every opponent, more Crystal Ball game plans and Coach's notes readings, and your full rating history.