During the outdoor tennis season of 1984 a prospective injury registration was done in 104 randomly chosen elite tennis players, of whom 86% could be followed. We found 46 injuries: an incidence of 2.3 injuries/player/1000 tennis hours. Men were more frequently injured than women. The prevalence was 0.3 injury/player. Upper extremity injuries were most frequent - 45.7% (21/46). Shoulder injuries were the single most frequent injury - 17% (8/46). The pathophysiology was overuse in 67% (28/42), strains in 14% (6/42), sprains in 17% (7/42), fractures in 2% (1/42), and blisters in 5% (2/42). Players using conventional rackets had more injuries to the upper extremity compared with players using mid/oversized rackets, though the difference was nonsignificant. The importance of impact forces from the tennis stroke in the mechanism of upper extremity injuries is discussed.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Winge et al. (1989) studied this question.