Sobota leden 28, 2006

Tennis Is a Brutal Sport

Even though you don't touch your opponent in tennis, you can get hurt. This innocent sport shows how accidents as simple as ankle injury can get in your way to the Grand Slam title. The Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of 2006 season, is to finish on Sunday, January 29, with Roger Federer vs. Marcos Baghdatis men's singles final match. I'm sure it would be Roger Federer vs. Andre Agassi if Agassi didn't miss the tournament due to ankle injury. BTW Roger Federer plays every match with an ankle brace.

Maria Sharapova receives medical care during the match

Amelie Mauresmo and Justine Henin-Hardenne will play women's singles final match just in a few hours. Kim Clijsters, the top favourite in women's tennis, is missing the final due to ankle injury in the semi-final match with Amelie Mauresmo. Lindsay Davenport, (now former) number one player had also ankle problems during her matches, even though she was one of the few to declare themselves completely healthy before the top tennis action Down Under. Davenport is now heading home to take care of her ankle and Clijsters is expected to miss hard-court matches for at least two months.

According to the tennis players, injuries are the result of intense season with breaks between tournaments being not long enough to relax and heal their wounds. Players want the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to shorten the season in order to have a longer break before a new season starts. But shorter season means less matches which means less tennis over the year.

Why don't just players miss the match if they don't feel fit? Because they want to win the money (players get money even if they don't win the tournament). So it is a simple economic reasoning: a tennis player will participate in as many competitions as his physical condition would allow. If it is too dangerous, they will withdraw, otherwise they will undertake the risk of another injury. However, ITF is eager to discriminate good and fit players in favour of worse and not so healthy players just because some of them want to secure their top positions in the ATP/WTA ranking.

You can see that only underperforming players are calling for regulation. Unfortunately, this is a common phenomenon which can be seen not only in tennis...

UPDATE: The Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne retired due to stomach trouble after she lost the first set in the final match against Amelie Mauresmo of France. Mauresmo won her first Grand Slam title after more than 30 unsuccessful attempts in her career. She looked embarrassed at the first time indeed, since it was her third win after her opponnent retired during the match in the tournament.

— I 28 2006, 02:26:12 dop. CET Permalink