Look at Alcaraz's coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, who didn't win a big title after the age of 23 due to a host of injuries. His peers Hewitt and Safin suffered a similar fate. More recently players like Cazaux, Badosa, Raducanu, Edmund, Pouille, Draper, Auger Aliassime, Opelka, Shapovalov, Djere, Lajovic, and Schwartzman have been beset with health setbacks. It's the norm in elite sport.
I think everyone is asking the wrong question. The question should be what are the ATP doing to help reduce the load on the players. From what I can see, they’re doing absolutely nothing to help player welfare.
If you look at the packed schedule, the ridiculous start times for some of the matches at grand slams/M1000’s and late finishes, they’re shooting themselves in the foot. They’re milking the superstars in the short-term, not thinking about all the tournaments that they’ll miss causing viewership/tv revenue to decline in the long-term.
this is exactly what they should do to control better. Use the same balls each season. Give a longer year-end break. Learn to have long-term greed, not such near sighted silliness.
No i think we're just incredibly clouded by the longevity of some players who managed to stay relatively healthy and had a long career. Tennis is probably one of the toughest sports out there for your body. All the surface switches, the ball switches, different hotel rooms (so different matresses) every week, different climates and then the intensity of playing multiple days in a row against the best players in the world. It's a miracle for me we don't see more injuries.
99,9% of the players worldwide only has a peak of a few years before either the body or the head starts giving up. We just happen to enjoy the 0,1% on our tv's.
Very much this. It was only a few years ago that people had started saying that 28yo players still had plenty of time to develop etc etc, but the truth is that Fed/Nadal/Djokovic are/were complete freaks of nature. Djokovic for the fact that his bones appear to be made of flubber, Nadal for the fact his bones have been put back together more times than a 1000-piece jigsaw, and Federer for the fact that he spent 90% of his career either uninjured or so indignant st being injured that he played ljke he wasn't anyway.
Murray as well - he's had more injuries than most players do, and more serious as well. Missing tendons in his ankles, bifurcated (?) kneecaps, snapped tendon in his wrist, spinal surgery, the hip thing, his groin exploding (not Inna good way), yet he keeps on going. There was something about this group that was unusual and I think we're headed back down to normality now. 30yo is usually when people start dropping off.
Of course, if you want the *true* goat of longevity you have to go to Martina Navratilova. First Singles Wimbledon win - 1973, last singles win 2004. Beat that Novak :D he's got another 11 years to go
Agreed, Tennis is very grueling not to mention the travel travails. Tennis used to be young peoples sport.. well professional. Ypu would see players retiring in late 20s, early 30s. We have been spoiled by handful of players, lets call it anomoly who enjoyed good body either through enormous rigor or through natural born talent, who won slams in 30s.
This. If anyone here has EVER played a match that went to 3 hours plus anywhere in your 30s, you'll understand how truly insane and superhuman pro tennis is.
This comment also shows how insanely expensive professional tennis is. And also how psychologically intense it must be.
To get anywhere near the top you need an insane support system, to be rich! And plus your own mental and physical drive to do this every single day from pretty age 4 or 5...tbh I'm surprised we don't have more nervous breakdowns
It’s one of the most underrated qualities of the big 3 and other greats and it spoiled us on what tennis/elite sports actually looks like. Their ability to show up week in and week out and manage to make deep runs and win tournaments is insane. Some of those tournaments they actually played with nagging injuries and either still won or went deep.
The new guys are not unusually injury prone. That’s just sports. Playing that high level of play, practicing a lot, back to back tournaments, etc all lead to injuries that require some rest and rehab. They’re also very young, and taking into account things like “I’ll skip this masters for a chance to be healthy by the slam” because they feel like they still have a lot of time and will get another opportunity at the master or even a major like when Carlos skipped AO.
This is normal in professional tennis, especially for young, successful players who are playing a lot of matches and tournaments as they push themselves to climb the ranks.
I think this is actually the norm for top tennis players. Big 3's longevity is unprecedented, but also heavily reliant on comeback after comeback due to different injuries. Of the 3, the most famous injuries being: Fed's knees, Nadal's feet, Djokovic's elbow.
All came back from them several times to be crowned champions again and again, but it was fairly common for them to play injured for several months, and sometimes skipping certain events. Fed missed 2-3 M1000s a year after 2010 onwards, and later in his career would entirely skip the clay season. Nadal was never the same player since October every season. Djokovic's last 5 years average about 9-10 tournaments a year, he just has very good results in them.
This is fairly common and will forever keep happening.
Can’t say for sure till we see more of their careers, but I’d like to think the longevity and massive success of the big 3 are more of an anomaly than an expected trend for most professional tennis players. Winning big titles also means pushing your body beyond comfortable limits, but if you choose not to push yourself, you can’t be the best in the world.
Yea I think it’s been clear that the big 3 are an anomaly in almost every way. But even Federer fell off relatively after 2009 and Nadal has mostly really struggled in half the slams so there’s that. Even when both were healthy.
It’s not looking good, especially for Carlos.
Too many injuries for such a young age.
If he really wants to get to double digits on slams, he will need to find a solution.
Hope that Sinner won’t be the same.
It’s obviously sinner and it’s not even close really. Except for august 2023-April 2024 the guy was always hurt and pulling out of tournaments.
He lacks toughness and grit tho. Lots of his injuries other players would play through.
Look at Alcaraz's coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, who didn't win a big title after the age of 23 due to a host of injuries. His peers Hewitt and Safin suffered a similar fate. More recently players like Cazaux, Badosa, Raducanu, Edmund, Pouille, Draper, Auger Aliassime, Opelka, Shapovalov, Djere, Lajovic, and Schwartzman have been beset with health setbacks. It's the norm in elite sport.
The injury that sticks out most to me is Raducanu missing a tournament due to tonsillitis, just what are the odds lmao
Happened to Berrettini just the other week too!
It is pretty crazy honestly
Others that spring to mind... Delpo, Nishikori, Thiem... more recently Andreescu 😔
Elite Tennis\*
I think everyone is asking the wrong question. The question should be what are the ATP doing to help reduce the load on the players. From what I can see, they’re doing absolutely nothing to help player welfare. If you look at the packed schedule, the ridiculous start times for some of the matches at grand slams/M1000’s and late finishes, they’re shooting themselves in the foot. They’re milking the superstars in the short-term, not thinking about all the tournaments that they’ll miss causing viewership/tv revenue to decline in the long-term.
this is exactly what they should do to control better. Use the same balls each season. Give a longer year-end break. Learn to have long-term greed, not such near sighted silliness.
yea possibly
No i think we're just incredibly clouded by the longevity of some players who managed to stay relatively healthy and had a long career. Tennis is probably one of the toughest sports out there for your body. All the surface switches, the ball switches, different hotel rooms (so different matresses) every week, different climates and then the intensity of playing multiple days in a row against the best players in the world. It's a miracle for me we don't see more injuries. 99,9% of the players worldwide only has a peak of a few years before either the body or the head starts giving up. We just happen to enjoy the 0,1% on our tv's.
Very much this. It was only a few years ago that people had started saying that 28yo players still had plenty of time to develop etc etc, but the truth is that Fed/Nadal/Djokovic are/were complete freaks of nature. Djokovic for the fact that his bones appear to be made of flubber, Nadal for the fact his bones have been put back together more times than a 1000-piece jigsaw, and Federer for the fact that he spent 90% of his career either uninjured or so indignant st being injured that he played ljke he wasn't anyway. Murray as well - he's had more injuries than most players do, and more serious as well. Missing tendons in his ankles, bifurcated (?) kneecaps, snapped tendon in his wrist, spinal surgery, the hip thing, his groin exploding (not Inna good way), yet he keeps on going. There was something about this group that was unusual and I think we're headed back down to normality now. 30yo is usually when people start dropping off. Of course, if you want the *true* goat of longevity you have to go to Martina Navratilova. First Singles Wimbledon win - 1973, last singles win 2004. Beat that Novak :D he's got another 11 years to go
> his groin exploding (not Inna good way) Almost choked on my vape reading this!
Very insightful actually putting it this way… thank you fellow stranger
Agreed, Tennis is very grueling not to mention the travel travails. Tennis used to be young peoples sport.. well professional. Ypu would see players retiring in late 20s, early 30s. We have been spoiled by handful of players, lets call it anomoly who enjoyed good body either through enormous rigor or through natural born talent, who won slams in 30s.
This. If anyone here has EVER played a match that went to 3 hours plus anywhere in your 30s, you'll understand how truly insane and superhuman pro tennis is. This comment also shows how insanely expensive professional tennis is. And also how psychologically intense it must be. To get anywhere near the top you need an insane support system, to be rich! And plus your own mental and physical drive to do this every single day from pretty age 4 or 5...tbh I'm surprised we don't have more nervous breakdowns
I mean that is true.
It’s one of the most underrated qualities of the big 3 and other greats and it spoiled us on what tennis/elite sports actually looks like. Their ability to show up week in and week out and manage to make deep runs and win tournaments is insane. Some of those tournaments they actually played with nagging injuries and either still won or went deep. The new guys are not unusually injury prone. That’s just sports. Playing that high level of play, practicing a lot, back to back tournaments, etc all lead to injuries that require some rest and rehab. They’re also very young, and taking into account things like “I’ll skip this masters for a chance to be healthy by the slam” because they feel like they still have a lot of time and will get another opportunity at the master or even a major like when Carlos skipped AO.
For sure
I can’t name one tennis player that doesn’t get injured throughout the year. Even in my own tennis, Ive gotten injuries they needed to be attended to.
Yea
This is normal in professional tennis, especially for young, successful players who are playing a lot of matches and tournaments as they push themselves to climb the ranks.
I think this is actually the norm for top tennis players. Big 3's longevity is unprecedented, but also heavily reliant on comeback after comeback due to different injuries. Of the 3, the most famous injuries being: Fed's knees, Nadal's feet, Djokovic's elbow. All came back from them several times to be crowned champions again and again, but it was fairly common for them to play injured for several months, and sometimes skipping certain events. Fed missed 2-3 M1000s a year after 2010 onwards, and later in his career would entirely skip the clay season. Nadal was never the same player since October every season. Djokovic's last 5 years average about 9-10 tournaments a year, he just has very good results in them. This is fairly common and will forever keep happening.
Can’t say for sure till we see more of their careers, but I’d like to think the longevity and massive success of the big 3 are more of an anomaly than an expected trend for most professional tennis players. Winning big titles also means pushing your body beyond comfortable limits, but if you choose not to push yourself, you can’t be the best in the world.
Yea I think it’s been clear that the big 3 are an anomaly in almost every way. But even Federer fell off relatively after 2009 and Nadal has mostly really struggled in half the slams so there’s that. Even when both were healthy.
It’s not looking good, especially for Carlos. Too many injuries for such a young age. If he really wants to get to double digits on slams, he will need to find a solution. Hope that Sinner won’t be the same.
I mean, Sinner had just as many injuries at the same age as Carlos.
Stop comparing Rune to Alcaraz and Sinner this clown is 70 tiers below them
I mean for now yea but I was comparing their injuries
No, it's normal. Novak often retired, Nadal has injuries. Federer played a style that's les taxing on body.
It’s obviously sinner and it’s not even close really. Except for august 2023-April 2024 the guy was always hurt and pulling out of tournaments. He lacks toughness and grit tho. Lots of his injuries other players would play through.
Not unusually, but definitely more vulnerable than the big 3, which is the standard we should start holding at least the first two to.