Sport research · Tennis

Peptides for tennis: elbows, shoulders and three-set focus

Tennis combines repetitive overhead serving, lateral sprinting and hours of concentration. This page maps those demands onto the evidence radar and lists the anti-doping status for every compound.

Low-contact sportWADA 2026 status checkedVerified PubMed citations

Tested athletes: read this first

Under the WADA 2026 Prohibited List (in force from 1 January 2026), BPC-157 is named under S0, TB-500 under S2.3, Ipamorelin and Tesamorelin under S2.2.4 and MOTS-c under S4.4.1 — all prohibited in and out of competition. Research peptides with no regulatory approval anywhere are caught by S0’s catch-all wording. Tested athletes: these are banned. South African athletes can check with SAIDS and the official 2026 List.

The demands

What tennis asks of the body

The tennis injury map is well known: lateral epicondylalgia ("tennis elbow") in recreational players, shoulder and rotator-cuff overload from serving, wrist problems from modern topspin grips, and knee and ankle load from hard-court lateral movement. At the elite level abdominal and back strains from the serve are common too.

Matches can last three to five hours in heat, and the mental side — staying composed through momentum swings with no coach on court — is as decisive as the physical. That is why Cognition carries weight here even though tennis is a non-contact sport.

South Africa has a strong club-tennis culture and hard-court conditions in the Highveld sun. Tennis’s anti-doping programme, run by the International Tennis Integrity Agency, applies the WADA Code to professional and ranked players.

Mapped to the evidence radar

Each demand below is mapped to one of the ten fixed research areas on our evidence radar. The heavier the weight, the more that area counts when compounds are ranked for Tennis: Recovery & Repair ×3, Cognition & Focus ×2, Sleep & Recovery Rhythm ×2, Skin, Hair & Glow ×1, Longevity & Energy ×1.

Tennis elbow and shoulder · Recovery & Repair
Tendon overuse at the elbow and rotator cuff. Tendon research here is preclinical; we also have a tennis-elbow hub.
Composure and focus · Cognition & Focus
Long matches reward sustained attention. Cognition research here is Russian clinical Semax/Selank work in patients.
Tournament travel · Sleep & Recovery Rhythm
Late finishes and travel disrupt sleep; sleep research here is in older adults.
Sun exposure · Skin, Hair & Glow
Hours outdoors in strong UV; skin research is cosmetic-science and nothing here is sun protection.

By the evidence

Highest-scoring compounds for Tennis

Ranked by weighted evidence score across Tennis’s research areas. A reading aid for the literature — not a recommendation, and not a performance claim.

Top three for Tennis, overlaid · strength of published evidence per area

Show the scores as a table

Evidence score per research area, 0 to 10
Area	KLOW	Cerebrolysin	Epitalon
Fat Loss & Metabolism	2	1	2
Appetite Control	1	1	1
Muscle & Body Composition	6	2	3
Recovery & Repair	10	8	5
Skin, Hair & Glow	10	3	6
Gut & Immune	10	4	5
Cognition & Focus	6	10	6
Mood & Calm	5	6	5
Sleep & Recovery Rhythm	3	5	9
Longevity & Energy	9	6	10

KLOW

In stock

7.4Tennis match

Recovery & RepairPrimary10/10

Extensive animal and tissue studies demonstrate rapid healing of tendon, ligament, muscle, and bone.

Cognition & Focus6/10

Copper chaperoning supports neurovascular integrity and dampens neuroinflammatory cascades.

Sleep & Recovery Rhythm3/10

Indirect — studied via anti-inflammatory and nervous-system gene-expression pathways; limited direct sleep data.

S0 + S2.3KLOW contains BPC-157 (named in S0) and TB-500 (named in S2.3). Tested athletes: this is banned.

Research overview View compound

Cerebrolysin

Restocking

7.0Tennis match

Recovery & RepairPrimary8/10

Robust stroke and traumatic brain injury rehabilitation trials prove functional neuroplastic recovery.

Cognition & Focus10/10

Extensive randomized trials in vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s document clear cognitive protection.

Sleep & Recovery Rhythm5/10

Small studies report EEG normalisation in dementia; sleep-specific data are limited.

M2.2Not named, and approved as a medicine in a number of countries. Its trials use intravenous infusions; outside hospital care, IV infusions over 100 mL per 12 hours are a prohibited method (M2.2).

Research overview Notify me on restock Glossary

Epitalon

Restocking

6.8Tennis match

Recovery & RepairPrimary5/10

Supports immune surveillance and restorative cellular maintenance cycles.

Cognition & Focus6/10

Long-term human cohorts report preserved cognitive faculties and neuroendocrine equilibrium.

Sleep & Recovery Rhythm9/10

Restores youthful nocturnal melatonin rhythm in clinical gerontology trials.

S0Not named. Epitalon has no current approval as a medicine anywhere we can find, which is the S0 test. Tested athletes should treat it as banned.

Research overview Notify me on restock Glossary

Semax

Restocking

6.7Tennis match

Recovery & RepairPrimary7/10

Demonstrates robust neuro-rehabilitation and cerebral ischemic protection in clinical cohorts.

Cognition & Focus10/10

Registered medicine with extensive clinical trials proving rapid BDNF induction, memory, and stroke recovery.

Sleep & Recovery Rhythm5/10

Enhances daytime cognitive efficiency, promoting stabilized circadian sleep-wake balance.

S0 (contested)Not named. Semax is a registered medicine in Russia, so S0’s approval test is contested, and it is an ACTH(4-10) analogue (S2.2.2 covers corticotrophins). No published ruling — tested athletes should treat it as a risk and ask first.

Research overview Notify me on restock Glossary

Tesamorelin

Restocking

6.4Tennis match

Recovery & RepairPrimary6/10

Raises IGF-1, the axis studied for collagen synthesis and connective-tissue repair.

Cognition & Focus7/10

Randomized controlled trials confirm significant executive cognitive function gains in older adults.

Sleep & Recovery Rhythm7/10

GHRH signaling deepens Stage 4 slow-wave restorative sleep architecture.

S2.2.4Tesamorelin is named as a GHRH analogue (S2.2.4), non-Specified, prohibited at all times — even though it is an approved medicine elsewhere. Tested athletes: this is banned.

Research overview Notify me on restock Glossary

TB-500

Restocking

6.2Tennis match

Recovery & RepairPrimary9/10

Master actin-sequestering protein fragment driving rapid cell migration to sites of muscle/cardiac injury.

Cognition & Focus5/10

Thymosin β4 improved functional outcome and neurite remodelling after experimental stroke and brain injury in rodents (Neuroscience 2012; J Neurosurg 2010).

Sleep & Recovery Rhythm3/10

Indirect — downstream of tissue repair and reduced inflammation; limited direct sleep data.

S2.3The List names "Thymosin-β4 and its derivatives e.g. TB-500" under growth factors (S2.3), non-Specified, prohibited at all times. Tested athletes: this is banned.

Research overview Notify me on restock Glossary

Scores (0–10) rate the strength of the published research link in each area — large human trials score highest, then smaller human studies (Russian clinical research counted at full weight), then animal and lab work. They describe the literature, not an outcome for any person or athlete. All compounds are supplied strictly for laboratory research purposes and are not for human consumption.

The literature

What published research says about tennis

BPC-157 increased tendon-fibroblast outgrowth and migration in culture — in-vitro tendon evidence.[1]
Russian clinical trial: Selank’s anxiolytic effect was similar to medazepam in generalised anxiety and neurasthenia, with added anti-asthenic effects.[2]

Anti-doping

WADA 2026 status of every compound on this page

Quoted from the WADA Prohibited List 2026 (in force 1 January 2026). Where a compound is not named, we say so and explain how the List’s wording applies.

WADA 2026 Prohibited List status per compound
Compound	Status	What the 2026 List says
KLOW	Prohibited — named · S0 + S2.3	KLOW contains BPC-157 (named in S0) and TB-500 (named in S2.3). Tested athletes: this is banned.
Cerebrolysin	Method limit (IV) · M2.2	Not named, and approved as a medicine in a number of countries. Its trials use intravenous infusions; outside hospital care, IV infusions over 100 mL per 12 hours are a prohibited method (M2.2).
Epitalon	Treat as prohibited · S0	Not named. Epitalon has no current approval as a medicine anywhere we can find, which is the S0 test. Tested athletes should treat it as banned.
Semax	Treat as prohibited · S0 (contested)	Not named. Semax is a registered medicine in Russia, so S0’s approval test is contested, and it is an ACTH(4-10) analogue (S2.2.2 covers corticotrophins). No published ruling — tested athletes should treat it as a risk and ask first.
Tesamorelin	Prohibited — named · S2.2.4	Tesamorelin is named as a GHRH analogue (S2.2.4), non-Specified, prohibited at all times — even though it is an approved medicine elsewhere. Tested athletes: this is banned.
TB-500	Prohibited — named · S2.3	The List names "Thymosin-β4 and its derivatives e.g. TB-500" under growth factors (S2.3), non-Specified, prohibited at all times. Tested athletes: this is banned.