This morning, I was making a list of Family Circle Cup players who had injuries and illnesses. After I made the list, I left a blank space at the end. I can't explain it, but I just had a feeling that someone else was going to get injured. Not very long after I made the list, Caroline Wozniacki fell, and retired against Vera Zvonareva. It was a bit eerie.
Of course, there were several tournament withdrawals because of injuries, which is the norm. Dominika Cibulkova made it to Charleston, but withdrew during qualifying because of a hip problem. Once play began in the main draw, the following players suffered injuries or illnesses:
Olga Govortsova--retired with knee tendonitis
Ayumi Morita--retired with adductor muscle strain
Victoria Azarenka--retired with hamstring injury
Marion Bartoli--retired with dizziness
Elena Vesnina--declared doubles walkover because of adductor muscle strain
Bethanie Mattek-Sands--experienced cramping in both thighs
Jelena Jankovic--played with left wrist injury
Caroline Wozniacki--retired with twisted ankle
(Alina Jidkova--experienced cramping in both legs during qualifying)
My latest Tennis Magazine came today. It had an article about the season possibly being too long and injuries. Ellenbecker,Director of medical services of the ATP and his colleagues at both the WTA/ATP say they can't really say if there are more injuries today than 10 years ago. Mostly the evidence seems to be anecdotal. But "In 2010 the tours will implement a new database to track injuries." To paraphrase, they will record each player's injuries and details such as surface, temperature, hours on court etc. The article was written by Tom Perrotta. Anyway I just thought it is an interesting plan given the players' complaints about the long season and also what we think we see as more injuries. Hopefully they will have some data by the end of the year that will tell the tennis community some details.
ReplyDeleteI think that collecting data is an excellent idea.
ReplyDeleteWe already know that changing the surface at the Australian Open has decreased the number of ankle injuries sustained there. The more information, the better.