Injuries Continue to Sideline Henan and Women's Tennis
The WTA Tour has tried to add more breaks into the tournament calendar, created a longer off-season, but injuries still continue to plague the marquee players in women’s professional tennis. Today, we learned that the elbow injury that Justine Henin
sustained in a fall during her match with Kim Clijsters at Wimbledon will now keep her off the court until the beginning of 2011 (she had originally hoped to return in the fall). Coming off a six month break to start her 2011 campaign will almost be like starting career number three for Henin!
In the past two years, multiple top female tennis players have missed months due to injuries, e.g. Serena Williams (myriad injuries), Venus Williams (knee), Maria Sharapova (shoulder and elbow), Kim Clijsters (foot), Dinara Safina (back), Elena Dementieva (leg), etc. In contrast, the men’s Tour has been much more fortunate even though many players have sustained injuries. Rafael Nadal has missed months because of his knee and Roger Federer has had some illnesses and injuries, but he’s not missed a Grand Slam let alone been on the sidelines for more than 6-8 weeks at a time. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have also only missed short periods due to injuries in the past couple years.
The reality is that injuries can have a significant impact on a player’s career and some players are simply more injured because of physique, style of play, conditioning and/or bad luck. Clearly, the changes in the tournament schedule should provide the players with more time to rest and train, but yet the injuries still seem to plague certain players.
In the past two years, multiple top female tennis players have missed months due to injuries, e.g. Serena Williams (myriad injuries), Venus Williams (knee), Maria Sharapova (shoulder and elbow), Kim Clijsters (foot), Dinara Safina (back), Elena Dementieva (leg), etc. In contrast, the men’s Tour has been much more fortunate even though many players have sustained injuries. Rafael Nadal has missed months because of his knee and Roger Federer has had some illnesses and injuries, but he’s not missed a Grand Slam let alone been on the sidelines for more than 6-8 weeks at a time. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have also only missed short periods due to injuries in the past couple years.
The reality is that injuries can have a significant impact on a player’s career and some players are simply more injured because of physique, style of play, conditioning and/or bad luck. Clearly, the changes in the tournament schedule should provide the players with more time to rest and train, but yet the injuries still seem to plague certain players.
|
