Only ten days ago, Dinara Safina's coach said of her, "...physically, she's perfect. She's got no pain...."
Something changed. Today, the former world number 1 withdrew from Wimbledon, citing a return of her lower back pain.
Her place in the draw has been taken by Melanie Oudin, who is now the 33rd seed. Lucky loser Stephanie Dubois has moved into the main draw.
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez also withdrawn, citing knee injury.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I just saw that. And it makes me sad.
ReplyDeleteAt the rate these withdrawals are going, Wimbledon may have to redo the draw. These injuries are troubling and will continue to be so unless the Tour starts taking a look, not at the schedule, but at the technology that is at the root of these player's problems.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the problems that are surfacing amongst players it is: wrists, back, shoulders, and knees and a lot of this has to do with the racquet technology that is now being touted by racquet manufacturers.
The amount of torque that these women now have to generate in order to combat the pace and spin of shots coming off the racquets of opponents is making the injury list of players look like a case of the Walking Wounded. Seeing Azarenka fall down on her knees in pain during her match today and the tears in her eyes just showed just how frustrating it is.
What is it going to take to have the Tours start looking at the technology being used?
Recently while I was watching the re-broadcast of the women's match, John McEnroe informed his compatriot of just why Francesca and Samantha were able to hit the ball in the way they were doing. H mentioned the new cross strings that Babolat has been pushing. He says while it does generate a lot of spin it is also hell on your body, especially your shoulders and back. The time to stop with these increased string technology is now.
I play with a Wilson KBlade and I string at 10.5 lbs of torque which is really light and even I have problems when my opponent hits a ball that has lots of spin. Something needs to be done or we are going to find players playing with tape all over their bodies before too long. It has to end somewhere.
Here is an article, Karen: http://tinyurl.com/33rgd5h
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