Is Tennis too fast and too hard?

As the ATP and WTA continue the season with the Asian swing of this year’s tour leading into the tour championships it’s hard to ignore the signs of  stress on the players’ bodies.
Several top players have been conspicuously absent from tournament play for a number of months due to physical injuries.
On the men’s side Rafa Nadal has just returned after missing all tournaments since Wimbledon in July due to a wrist injury incurred in practice.
Andy Murray has spent a lot of this season trying to regain his form after undergoing back surgery a year ago. It appears that the Shenzhen Open may have been the first real indicator that Murray is back to full health.
Juan Martin del Potro has missed an extended period due to a troubling wrist injury. This injury first surfaced at the beginning of 2010 in Australia.  After missing all the tournaments that followed the Australian Open Del Potro had wrist surgery in May of 2010. Del Potro did not return to competitive tennis for nine months. After working hard to regain form and ranking points by 2012 Del Potro was firmly in the top ten.  In 2014 the injury resurfaced and a second surgery took place in the spring. Del Potro had planned to return to the tour during the Asian swing but his return has been postponed.

On the women’s side former number two Vera Zvonareva who had been sidelined for well over a year is trying to get back into match shape. Zvonareva withdrew form the 2013 Australian Open with a shoulder injury which required surgery.
Victoria Azarenka has suffered two injuries this year limiting her to a minimal number of tournaments. The first injury, a foot injury, resulted in a five month layoff. In her return to competition she fell during a match in Montreal and injured her knee. The culmination of the two injuries has forced Azarenka to call it quits for the season so she can properly heal.
Li Na surprised everyone by announcing her retirement from professional tennis a couple of weeks ago just as the Asian tournaments were about to begin. After dealing with right knee injuries for several years,  a new left knee injury became just too much for her to overcome.
One must also remember that a serious shoulder injury requiring surgery took Maria Sharapova off the circuit for a  lengthy chunk of time and once she returned it took her a couple of years to regain her pre surgery form.

All sports evolve over time. One of the key factors contributing to the evolution of tennis is the change in racquet technology. One is only required to look back to the 1970’s when wood racquets were mainstream. The force these racquets generated was much reduced compared to the racquets today which are made of a variety of materials, including graphite, Kevlar and fibreglass.  The lighter weight frames allow for increased racquet head speed, which increases the force transferred to the ball and increases the weight and speed of the shot. With the change in racquet technology has also come a change in the composition of strings. Strings have moved away from the softer natural gut to a variety of synthetics. Strings can be monofilament, multi filaments, textured and/or composite, with the newer strings gripping the ball better imparting even more spin. Adjustments in tension can alter the power produced.

Back to basic physics.  Force = mass x acceleration. Since the mass of the tennis ball has remained unchanged over the years the added force the new racquets and strings produce has resulted in increased ball speed. This in turn has put more force on the athletes’s bodies.

A look back at the 1970s and the only injury I could find for Bjorn Borg was a shoulder injury incurred while water skiing. I could not find a serious injury for John McEnroe. Ditto on the women’s side. No mention of serious injuries for Chris Evert or Martina Navratilova.

Perhaps its time to let the athletes bodies catch up to the evolution of the equipment as it is becoming very apparent that even though these athletes are in incredible physical condition they cannot compete with the new technology of the game.