No GPS data in tennis workout on Apple Watch

I just got an Apple Watch Ultra 2, and tried out the "tennis" workout the other day. Looks like it didn't collect any GPS data. Is this normal? Does the tennis workout really not have GPS tracking?


Here's an example from my Garmin Fenix 7X, showing what I would expect.



And please, don't suggest to use a third party app like SwingVision, I don't want to pay $180 a year extra for such a basic feature. What's the point in wearing a GPS smart watch, if it does not collect GPS data?


Or am I doing something wrong? The walk workouts look OK, they have GPS track.

Apple Watch Ultra 2

Posted on Apr 9, 2025 9:12 AM

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Apr 11, 2025 6:26 AM in response to LD150

Thank you, @LD150 for taking the time to answer.


Yes, I can see your point, and I should agree with you as an engineer, understanding (superficially though) the principles of how GPS works. However, looking at the GPS track of the tennis session I just had yesterday, recorded with a Garmin Fenix 7X, it looks accurate enough for me.



Apart from accuracy, I can see the sampling rate could be an issue. Looking at the walk workout's raw data from the Apple Watch, it has a one sample per second rate. You can cover a surprisingly large distance in one second, and turn around in that time while playing tennis. But I looked at the actual raw data from the Garmin watch, and the track shown above doesn't even have a one sample per second rate, sometimes slower. I think it is adaptive, depending on the intensity of the movements.


As far as I know, both watches use dual frequency precision tracking, and Apple states their watch is the best.


"Precision dual-frequency GPS utilizes advanced satellite and signal models, custom positioning algorithms, and Apple Maps data to provide the most accurate GPS in a sports watch.1"


With a foot note, of course... ;-)



And as I said, I find the track from the Garmin watch accurate enough to paint a "heat map". On Garmin Connect, it is actually shown as a heat map, I pasted an image in an earlier post showing it. I know, it is not much value, but it looks good when I open the activity to look at.


Let me submit a "feedback" to Apple.

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No GPS data in tennis workout on Apple Watch

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