Tennis injuries

Tennis players like all elite athletes can succumb to illness and injury more frequently than the rest of us. This is because they can lower their immune system by over-training and when it comes to injuries they use their muscles, joints and ligaments so much more then the rest of us.

They also have to contend with the surface of the court causing many twisted ankles.
Most players play through injuries almost all the time. The only player who never had an injury was Todd Woodbridge and Australian doubles specialist.


Alicia Molik's injury was unusual, but many players, though they will play through a virus can be so ill that they have to stop playing. This happened to Justine Henin-Hardenne in the final of the Australian Open 2006. She had been taking anti-inflammatories to combat a shoulder injury and those anti-inflammatories caused extreme pain in the stomach.
Many succumb to heat stroke too as happens often at the Australian Open held in very hot weather sometimes.
Cramp too is not technically an injury and used to be one which could not be treated during a game, but now can be. Baghdatis suffered obvious cramp in the final of the Australian Open 2006, but commentators thought this was not from lack of condition, but nerves. Many players use cramp as a reason to have a massage too.
The worst injuries for tennis players are knee reconstructions. Australia's once brilliant player Philippoussis has had 3 of those. Each time players who have these reconstruction of joints are out of the game for months.
Other common joint injuries are shoulders, wrists and ankles. Kim Klijsters was out for almost a year with a wrist injury.
There are countless muscle injuries also.
Other unique things can happen on the court like James Blake running slap bang into the umpires chair. That injury took him out of the game for some time.