What is the cause of increased professional tennis injuries?

It’s obvious we have a problem in the world of professional tennis.  Imagine if 15% of the star players in soccer, basketball, baseball or football were all injured in one season?  The sponsors of the game would investigate safety issues and see if the season was to demanding.  Even Nadal complained in a recent interview about the ATP schedule citing the toll it has taken on his body. “It’s impossible to play first of January to finish fifth of December,” he said. “It’s impossible to be here playing like what I did the last five years, playing a lot of matches and being all the time 100 percent without problems.” 

Here is the quick list of tennis injuries that have happened in 2009 and what tournament it occured at:

Tennis injuries - is the season to long?

• Roger Federer (fatigue) – after US Open taking a break
• Rafael Nadal (knee, stomach) – US Open
• Andy Roddick (knee injury) – Shanghai Masters – “I think it’s ridiculous to think that you have a professional sport

Roger Federer is betterer & joins Pete Sampras as a tennis legend

Roger Federer wins the French Open, finally

Is Federer the greatest tennis player ever or just one og the legends now?  Of course, Roger would have preferred to enter history without the retarded Jimmy Jump disrupting his game but old Federer proved he could still even win with a distraction as crazy as that one.

With Robin Soderling about to serve at 1-2, 15-0 in the second set, an intruder ran down a staircase in the lower section of the stands at Philippe Chatrier court, jumped over the barrier and onto Roger Federer’s half of the court. It took guards about 9 seconds to realize they were paid to do more than stand there, & they quickly ran after and apprehended the man.  It’s sad what some people do for publicity.

In the New York Times, Harvey Araton notes that the tennis world agrees not just on Federer’s greatness, but also his goodness. “Count on the sport continuing to root for Federer to climb higher up the mountain of immortality, as it has championed him since he rocketed to the top with the beautiful game and the embraceable persona,” Araton writes. “Even Soderling, who by reputation shuns discourse with most players, became a humble charmer during the awards ceremony, paying his respects. ‘You really gave me a lesson on how to play tennis,’ he told Federer.”

Roger Federer getting old?

Roger Federer losing his edge?

Does it seem Roger is losing his edge.  He has endured much, achieved much, tolerated much and delivered much this season. Do you think he can continue to have the weight of the tennis world on his shoulders, this is Roger Federer, not superman.

The day after his painstaking 5th consecutive triumph in the US Open last month, Roger Federer talked about how he had not felt stronger and fresher for a long time (yeahh…..) – that he believed the old invincibility (not quite) was flowing back. The chirpy champion looked as if he could have slipped straight into his tennis gear and played a few more sets.

Federer spoke, too about the period at the beginning of the year when he was not feeling at all chipper, about the glandular fever that had affected him and how he had worried about how he should tell the world that he had been suffering from it without any of his words sounding like an excuse for the semi final loss to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open and the first round defeat in Dubai to Andy Murray. When Federer said yesterday that he might not play again this year, it was not that much of a shock, because his twin aims for 2009 are to regain his No.1 ranking from Rafael Nadal and collect a couple of grand slam titles so that he can overhaul Pete Sampras’ tally of 14, from which he is currently one removed. This is no time to flog himself to death.

Can Rafael Nadal win the 2008 US Open?

Nadal roll saround in victory

This first week of September, the tennis community will be biting their nails watching to see whether Nadal will close the deal this summer or whether Federer will be able to bounce back with the mental challenges of having the No. 1 ranking torn from his grasp for the first time in 1/20th of a century.

Nadal has never made it past the quarterfinals at the US Open or Australian Open, which are played on hard courts – (except once). And other players, such as #3 Novak Djokovic, who will be looking to follow up on his win over Federer in this year’s Australian Open, and past US Open champ Andy Roddick, could easily take the trophy for the tournament as well.

Tennis vs Football, which one is more humble

I read this online in Sports Illustrated today.

Is anyone else offended by Gael Monfils doing his little dance after match point, but BEFORE the postmatch handshake against Nalbandian? To me, that’s completely disrespectful of your opponent. Not to mention, the kind of showboating I’d rather not see in tennis.
– Chris, Rockford, Minn.

• Disagree. I like Monfils’ emoting and “showboating,” particularly since it’s done with a sense of fun. If he were a jerk it would be one thing, but this is just an expressive kid enjoying himself. I vote to give him a pass.

I personally enjoy it when winners fall to the ground like Nadal did at the Wimbledon.  It’s adds imagery to what’s going on inside their head for that monent like, ”I’ve put my heart and soul into this match and I barely made it.”

Have you even dedicated 15+ years of your like to something to finally start breaking out and becoming successful?  A handful of these tennis players fill that.