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Tennis Injuries

One of my favourite times of the year for Australian Sport is January and the Australian Open.

I have spent every spare moment this week watching the tennis. What I haven’t been able to watch whilst working or training I have recorded and stayed up till all hours of the night witnessing some terrific tennis. Perhaps that is why I have gone from two to three coffees a day!

Call me crazy it just so happens that I love sport, even more so when I can witness our very own Australian athletes competing on centre stage.

Bernard Tomic continues to impress and I am excited about his future. Our very own Lleyton Hewitt continues to fight but I can sense a retirement not too far away, not to mention the great comeback from major surgery in Perth’s Casey Dellacqua and Perth Matt Ebden who was just nudged out in a thrilling five set match. A sad first round exit for Stosur but what an inspiration she is to female athletes in Australia. I believe Julia Gillard is her number one fan!

This week we hear from Ross Banyard. Ross is a physiotherapist at Sportreat and has a personal passion for tennis. A member of the Old Collegians Tennis Club he plays several times a week and shares an insight on tennis injuries.

Common Injuries that you are likely to see in the 1st week of the championship

-Lateral epicondylitis of the elbow (Tennis elbow);

- Causes - Over use of the wrist extensors, commonly seen with heavy topspin forehands & single handed backhand players.

- Treatment - Taping, Stretching, Eccentric muscle strengthening, Electro-modalities for pain relief, NSAID's,

- Occurred to - Raphael Nadal

-Lower back stiffness (can lead to boney stress fractures);

- Causes - repetitive bending forwards & backwards motion, such as serving (especially heavy topspin servers)

- Treatment - Lower back stretches, Core stability training,

- Occurred to - Roger Federer

-Ankle Inversion injury (rolled ankle);

- Causes - Poor ankle proprioception, history of rolled ankles, common with the scrambling players,

- Treatment - RICE, Proprioceptive retraining, Ankle taping, Ankle braces,

- Occurred to - Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick

-Patella Tendonitis (Jumpers knee);

- Causes - Continual heavy landings on hard surfaces, Tight quad and calf muscles,

- Treatment - Taping, stretching, eccentric muscle strengthening, Electro-modalities for pain relief, NSAID’s,

- Occurred to - Raphael Nadal

-Soft tissue injuries (Pulled muscles);

- Causes - Improper warming up, cold days, retrieving drop shots,

- Treatment - RICE, strapping, Strengthening and stretching program, education of appropriate warm up.

- Occurred to - Serena Williams (Calf)

-Blisters of the hands and feet;

- Causes - Overuse, poor callus formation during training,

- Treatment - Taping, numbing creams,

- Occurred to – Kim Clijsters

Here is proof that Ross Banyard is a beloved Tennis Player. Looking quite the part!

Tune in for more next week, until then my bets are on Novak Djokovic to win the men’s & Victoria Azarenka to win the women title for the 2012 Australian Open.

Bye for now.

Mel Marsh

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