Young elite male tennis players experience a high rate of injuries, primarily strains and sprains in the lower extremities and back.
Injuries that required physical or medical assistance were recorded for participants at the United States Tennis Association National Boys' Tennis Championships from 1986–1988, 1990–1992 (N = 1440, 240 athletes per year). Over the 6-yr period, a total of 304 athletes (or 21.1%) sustained new or recurrent injuries that required evaluation by the medical team. New injuries alone numbered 145 (incidence rate of 9.9 per 100 athletes). The analysis of injuries showed a higher rate of lower than upper extremity injuries. When evaluated by anatomic regions, back injuries were most common followed by thigh, shoulder, and ankle injuries, respectively. When evaluated by injury type, strains and sprains were most common (71% of all injuries) with fractures and dislocations being rare (1.3% of all injuries). The lower extremity provided the majority of sprain type injuries with 87.5% of ligament sprains coming from the knee and ankle. Injuries with tennis eponyms (i.e., tennis toe, tennis leg, tennis elbow, and tennis shoulder) were rare (0%–5% of all injuries). It would appear that these young elite athletes are at significant risk of injury.
Hutchinson et al. (1995) studied this question.