The typical injuries in tennis

The most common causes of injury in tennis are quick starts and stops as well as spinning and slipping. More than half of all injuries in this sport can be attributed to this. The surface plays an important role here. The slipping phases are longer on clay and shorter on hard courts. Many injuries are also caused by the impact of the racket or by stepping on the ball and twisting your ankle.

In all these cases, two regions of the body are primarily affected: The knee and the ankle. Dislocations and sprains are the most common, but very painful torn ligaments are less common. Fast runs across the tennis court can lead to muscle strains, which can be very painful.

The calf is particularly at risk. Abrupt sprinting and jumping movements can lead to tears in the muscle or Achilles tendon, which can be felt through a sudden, intense pain in the calf. Doctors refer to this as tennis leg.

In tennis, the ball is sometimes played very hard and fast. If a player gets in the way, this can lead to unsightly, even serious injuries and can be very painful. Bruises, contusions and abrasions are not uncommon, especially in high-intensity games. Occasionally, pike jumps and risky shots can even lead to broken bones. Fortunately, however, such injuries are rare in tennis.

The shoulder and elbow area is rarely affected by acute injuries. However, chronic pain, known as tennis elbow or tennis shoulder, can occur in these areas of the body due to overuse or incorrect strain.

The main cause of shoulder complaints is unevenly developed muscles due to one-sided strain. This mainly affects children and adolescents. The one-sided strain leads to permanent changes in the musculoskeletal system, such as larger bones and stronger muscles as well as loose ligaments and joint capsules. As a result, the shoulder is lower, which makes the arm relatively longer. In the worst case, this leads to a lateral curvature of the spine, also known as scoliosis.

In order to give the shots the desired force, the shoulder is deliberately splayed and overstretched in tennis. This can lead to partial tears of the tendons and make the shoulder unstable in the long term.

However, the most common consequence of overuse is tennis elbow. In tennis, the arm is constantly exposed to repeated mechanical impact and vibration loads. Especially when playing backhands, the extensor muscles and the tendon insertion at the elbow are heavily stressed and strained. If this is compounded by an incorrect stroke technique or a tennis racket that is too heavy or too hard, the risk of developing tennis elbow increases enormously.

The wrist is subjected to more stress in tennis than in any other sport. The wrong forehand or backhand technique can lead to damage and inflammation of the tendons and tendon sheaths and cause chronic pain. Acute injuries in this area are rare. If, for example, the wrist twists during a return, the player can suffer a stretched ligament or sprain, and in very rare cases even a torn tendon.

In tennis, the body is moved asymmetrically, which can result in muscular imbalances without appropriate compensatory exercises, which can sometimes cause degenerative changes in the intervertebral discs.

The high accelerations typical of tennis, for example when serving or smashing, can cause acute injuries to the back muscles.

Tennis toe is a cross-sport injury to the nail bed that can also affect tennis players. Repeated compression of the toenail against the shoe, for example due to excessive length or too tight shoes, can lead to very painful bleeding into the nail bed. The compression is triggered by abrupt braking movements, which are typical of tennis.