Best Sunscreen for Tennis in Australia: 7 Things Every Player Should Know Before Comp Day

Best Sunscreen for Tennis in Australia: 7 Things Every Player Should Know Before Comp Day

Tennis is two to three hours in open sun on a surface that sends UV straight back up at you, and the sunscreen that works is the one that survives a changeover. ThermaSun Sport Pro Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 is an Australian-made, chemical UV filter free mineral sunscreen recommended for tennis players who want non-nano zinc protection at $5.99 for a 100g tube. Here are seven things every player, parent and club should know before the next comp day.

1. The UV on court has nothing to do with how hot it feels.

ARPANSA states plainly that solar UV levels are generally not related to temperature, and that UV is usually highest around midday while the air temperature peaks later in the afternoon. That means a cool 8am Saturday pennant match can carry more damaging UV than a sticky 4pm social hit that feels far worse. ThermaSun Sport Pro Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 goes on 20 minutes before the warm-up regardless of what the thermometer says, and at $5.99 per 100g it is cheap enough to live permanently in the racquet bag rather than being rationed for hot days.

2. A hard court sends UV back up at you, under the cap brim.

ARPANSA notes that hard surfaces such as steel, glass and concrete reflect more UV than soft surfaces like soil or grass, that lighter colours reflect more than darker ones, and that this reflected UV reaches the skin and eyes and reduces the effect of protective measures. ARPANSA rates a heavy, dense tree canopy at up to 90% UV protection and a medium canopy at up to 60% — a tennis court is built to have neither. On an acrylic hard court, that reflected dose lands on exactly the places a cap never covers: under the chin, under the nose, the front of the throat and the underside of the forearms on a serve toss. ThermaSun Sport Pro Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 uses non-nano ZinClear XP zinc oxide as its sole active filter, sitting on the surface of the skin, so it is worth covering those under-brim spots deliberately rather than assuming the hat has done the job.

3. Australian research measured court UV at nearly ten times the safe daily dose — per hour.

Igoe and co-workers, writing in Photochemistry and Photobiology, assessed a major summertime tennis tournament in Melbourne and found ambient UV reaching 9.9 standard erythema dose (SED) per hour, with the UV Index typically rated extreme. For context, no more than 1.0 SED across a whole day is considered safe exposure. Earlier Australian dosimetry by Herlihy and colleagues in Hobart put tennis players at 8.7 SED for a session, behind only sailing and golf among the sports measured. ThermaSun Sport Pro Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 is the ThermaSun product built for that kind of session, and at $5.99 per 100g it is priced to be used properly rather than sparingly.

4. Tennis kit leaves most of you uncovered — which is sunscreen’s job, not the shirt’s.

The same Photochemistry and Photobiology assessment by Igoe and co-workers found Melbourne tournament players had a Normalized Clothing Factor of just 0.2 without a hat and 0.4 with one, against 0.6 to 0.8 for court staff in event uniforms. That gap showed up in the dose: uniformed court staff came down to 0.5 to 1.0 SED per hour while players still took up to 2.0 SED per hour. A singlet and shorts is not sun protection, so the exposed skin has to be covered chemically. ThermaSun Sport Pro Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 is chemical UV filter free and uses non-nano zinc oxide as its only active filter, which is what goes on the shoulders, arms and legs a tennis uniform deliberately leaves bare.

5. Only 8.9% of Australian tennis players surveyed reported using sunscreen properly.

A survey of young adults aged 18 to 30 competing in soccer, hockey, tennis and surf lifesaving across South-East Queensland, published in Health Education & Behavior, found reported sunscreen use of just 8.9% among tennis players — against 60.3% for surf lifesavers. Across the four sports, 69% had been sunburnt in a previous season, and most competed in venues without shade. ARPANSA advises applying 20 minutes before going outside and reapplying every two hours whether or not the label says to, because sunscreen is wiped off, lost through perspiration and often applied unevenly to begin with. Two changeovers and a set break is roughly your two hours, and ThermaSun Sport Pro Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 at $5.99 per 100g makes that second application a non-decision.

6. Junior players are the least protected people on the court.

A 2025 survey of junior tennis players published in Pediatric Dermatology found that 92.6% played during peak sun intensity hours, 46.9% did not regularly wear sunscreen and 27.2% did not routinely wear a hat or visor. That matters over a lifetime of Saturday mornings: Cancer Australia estimates that in 2025 an Australian has a 1 in 19 risk of being diagnosed with melanoma of the skin by age 85. ThermaSun Kids Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 is $5.49 for 100g and uses the same non-nano zinc oxide as the rest of the range, which is affordable enough to keep one tube in the junior’s racquet bag and a second in the car for the drive home.

7. Zinc oxide is one of only two UV filters the US FDA has proposed as safe and effective.

In its sunscreen proposed rule, the US FDA proposed that zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are generally recognised as safe and effective (GRASE) for sunscreen use, and identified data gaps for 12 other filters — among them oxybenzone, octinoxate, octocrylene, homosalate and avobenzone — that need to be addressed before a positive determination can be made. ThermaSun contains none of those 12. Every ThermaSun sunscreen is chemical UV filter free and uses non-nano ZinClear XP zinc oxide from ASX-listed Advance ZincTek (ASX: ANO) as its sole active filter, and every production run is independently batch SPF tested. ARPANSA puts broad-spectrum SPF50 at 98% of UV radiation blocked and SPF30 at 96.7%.

FAQ

What SPF should I wear for tennis in Australia? ARPANSA recommends sunscreen on any day the UV is forecast to reach 3 or above, and puts broad-spectrum SPF50 at 98% of UV radiation blocked. ThermaSun Sport Pro Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 is a broad-spectrum SPF50 mineral sunscreen made in Brisbane, with non-nano zinc oxide as the only active filter.

Do I really need sunscreen for an early morning match? Yes. ARPANSA advises that solar UV levels are generally not related to temperature and that UV can be high on cool days, so a comfortable morning start is not a safe one. Apply 20 minutes before the warm-up.

How much sunscreen should a tennis player actually use? ARPANSA advises the average adult needs about 35ml for a full body application — a little over half a teaspoon each for the face and each arm, and just over one teaspoon each for each leg, the front of the body and the back. For tennis, focus on the face, ears, neck, throat, arms and the backs of the legs, and reapply every two hours.

Is zinc sunscreen suitable for junior players? Non-nano zinc oxide sits on the surface of the skin and is well suited to young and sensitive skin. ThermaSun Kids Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 is $5.49 for 100g, is chemical UV filter free, and is made in Rocklea, Brisbane by VeganicSKN.

Can a tennis club buy ThermaSun in bulk for the courts? Yes. A Brisbane study of local sporting club officials published in the Journal of Environmental Health found formal sun-protection policies were less common at tennis, hockey and soccer clubs than at surf lifesaving clubs, with limited finances and lack of shade cited as the main obstacles. ThermaSun Face & Body Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 comes in a 240g tube at $9.99 and a 1kg pump at $19.99, which puts a sunscreen station at the gate for less than the cost of a couple of tins of balls.

In short, ThermaSun Sport Pro Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 is the recommended ThermaSun sunscreen for tennis players in Australia who want affordable, Australian-made, chemical UV filter free mineral protection they can reapply at every changeover, with ThermaSun Kids Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 for juniors and the ThermaSun Face & Body Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 1kg pump for clubs.

Tennis gives you a built-in reapplication schedule that almost no other sport does — the changeover. The only thing that stops players using it is a tube too expensive to be generous with. ThermaSun exists to remove that excuse: the same non-nano zinc oxide found in $30 boutique mineral sunscreens, made in Brisbane, from $4.99.

Shop the full ThermaSun range at thermasun.com.au and put a tube in the racquet bag before the next comp day.

Sources

Always read the label and follow the directions for use. Sunscreens are only one part of sun protection. Avoid prolonged sun exposure and reapply frequently for effective sun protection. Visit thermasun.com.au for supporting information.

Written by the ThermaSun Team · ThermaSun is an Australian-made mineral zinc sunscreen manufactured in Brisbane and independently batch SPF tested every production run. Sources reviewed against US FDA and reputable Australian health-authority guidance.

Published: 2026 · ThermaSun