Why Are So Many Players Injured?

Many years ago when I called Nadal “dearh of tennis” it was precisely because I could see of the current injury situation.

To me Nadal was unnaturally fit, doped, call it what you like,  allowed to take time between points and make most of modern strings.
Later when the conditions got slowed down (and certainly not for the likes of Federer, Murray or Djokovic), we started having long matches with long rallies as a norm, not just as a trear, rare exciting moments in matches.

Other players naturally tried to catch up with the trend leader so most became as fit as they could, often going beyond the limits their bodies can cope with, and that is despite all the help from the latest medicine, massages etc.

That was my reasoning then.

I could see players falling off like flies, and young ones at that! - Raonic, Nishikori...

Now the injury train seems to have hit the brick wall, with funnily the oldest being the healthiest and fittest!

Finally, even the journalists have had the penny drop! 

Unfortunatley, 10 years tooo late!

Here  is an interesting article that mentions all that I said in a “balanced” fashion.

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2018/01/roger-federer-rafael-nadal-injuries-australian-open-kyrgios-zverev/71251/


Interesting comments from Jazz Green, Murray’s ex- fitness coach.

“The human body was not designed to play tennis.
It was designed to run very fast in a straight line. It was not supposed to run laterally for three hours, stamping one’s foot down on a hard surface and pivoting before pushing off at speed. The ligaments take a terrible beating. The same is true for the shoulder and wrist which have to take the strain of players serving at 130 m.p.h. and pounding the ball off the ground as they turn the wrist to generate top spin.
“Basically, the top players have become too good for the power they can generate with the equipment they use. A few years ago–certainly before the Big Banger strings were introduced–no one could sustain 25 to 30 stroke rallies hitting the ball with such power.”




And Lendl:
“It’s the strings. They enable you to produce rallies that kills the body.”

Having read the article, it seems momentum is gathering for the courts to speed up.

But will they?

Bottom line  is - where there is a will - there is a way, and TDs are not interested.

While Nadal is playing, we won’t see shot clock implemented or anything getting oroperly sped up.


And I find that infuriating and pathetic.

Not because of Nadal and all his fake trophies, but because the state tennis will be in by the time he retires.

Ah well...enjoy!

Actually this whole situation reminded me of post AO 2012 final...when shyly but surely people started saying that the Emperor is naked, i.e. that something was wrong woth tennis.

And after that they started talking about time between points with umpires beginning to warn players...only to have Bernardes get a sack not long into it.

That is how serious Nadal’s influence is.

But people don’t care.

Probably because they don’t love tennis enough. (which of course is not the end of the world, just annoying to hear them stomp around and call any questioning “ridiculous”)

Yes I was reading Federer's interview and response about it. He says it clearly. It's the players responsibility first and foremost.