According to one aspect, the shoe sole (10) comprises at least one main ground engagement section (22) specifically designed to respond to certain modes of solicitation by the foot of the player. Such section is provided with a sculpted pattern having recesses (102) and solid areas (100). The recesses and solid areas are distributed to minimize pressures or stress differences throughout the ground engagement section concerned so as to provide better adherence and lower wear by abrasion in response to such mode of solicitations. Preferably this arrangement is applied to more than one main ground engagement section (22, 24, 42, 44) in the shoe sole, each of which offers a specific response to a particular mode of solicitation by a player in action. According to a preferred embodiment the recesses are made of elongated cells opening (102) in a corresponding solid area through an elongated aperture (101) with rounded ends (108). The application of these principles to the production of a tennis shoe is described.