A number of sports leagues are faced with the same problem: modern game styles that put increased physical requests to the bodies of athletes contribute to an increase in injuries.
The average NBA star player in the 2020s failed More than a quarter of each season, almost double the number of missed games like the 2000s, when there were about 10 fewer possessions per game than the “Pace and Space” era today. Almost 40% of all the MLB launchers who played in 2024 have undergone Tommy John surgery (UCL reconstruction), compared to 27% in 2016, because speeds and spin levels increased.
Tennis could be the next one.
There were 37 instances on the 2025 ATP tour A player retired in a match or withdrawal from the tournament in a match, representing around 6% of all matches. This is equivalent to the highest number at this stage on the tennis calendar in the past 20 years and 50% higher than the annual average of 23.8.
Novak Djokovic Withdrawn from his Australian open semi-final against Alexander Zverev with a muscle tear after a set and was encountered with huts of the crowd. Earlier in January, Reilly Opelka had to call it in the international Brisbane final after only 13 minutes of play.
The injury bug has not made its way to the WTA tour, which has only known 23 pensions or walks through the Indian Wells of 2025, just a little higher than the average of the last decade.
Interestingly, this aberrant year in male tennis follows what seemed to be a decrease in injuries. On average, there was a little less retirement and landing in the first part of the season between 2015 and 2024 than between 2005 and 2014.
The increased total of this year could therefore simply be a stroke of luck. The sample sizes are small. In addition, a stomach disease forced the withdrawals of several players from the Mexican opening in February.
However, there are several trends concerning trends in players’ health. The first is that they simply spend more time in court. A analysis ATP data by Athletics In 2023, shown that the Grand Men’s Grand Slam matches are 23% longer than in 1999. WTA data did not go back until 2008, but have demonstrated an increase of 5% during this period.
Changes in racket technology have led to improvements in the speed of ground and topspin, which means that there are more exhausting gatherings of the basic line and fewer service and flying points than 20 years ago. The players are also faster than in previous times, allowing them to extend the points with their defense and keep the balls at stake. Overall, the points have become longer and require more physical effort.
A study by the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) concluded that longer points increased the risk of injury. “The metric of the minutes per point is particularly important,” said the report, “with injured players who know longer points per minute compared to the average player.”
Then there are the balls. Many players in the two tours were frank on the quality of tennis ballswhich vary from the tournament to the tournament. Consensus seems to be that the most recent balls are less aerodynamic and slower, requiring more power to drive them through the field, which adds to the physical toll of players again.
“Each week, practically every week, we have different bullets”, n ° 3 classified Carlos Alcaraz said at a press conference in February. “I think last year there were many injuries, many players with elbow or shoulder problems. Something should change. I know they will change it.
Modern players play longer matches and engage in a more demanding style of play, but they play no fewer games. In fact, the average number of tournaments played by the 100 best ATP players in 2024 (25,12) was almost exactly the same as in 1999 (25.10).
The early trend of injuries in 2025 is a concern for professional tennis since physical illnesses tend to increase over the year. For example, since 2009, there have been 50% of retirements of retirement or more walks in the male draw of the US Open, the last major of the year, only in the Australian Open, which takes place eight months earlier in January.
And while SporticoThe analysis is limited to the first months of the tennis calendar, a study published in the European Sports Science Journal Corrobore the global conclusion, declaring that “an increasing trend in match pensions has been observed in the events of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), in particular in recent years, indicating a growing problem in professional tennis.”
Tennis already has an unusually long season and a short season compared to other sports. Recently, the WTA has increased the number of compulsory tournaments on the calendar, while the ATP has also extended several control events 1000 to two weeks and provided financial incentive to participate in more tournaments through a bonus pool.
“Most sports have four months off, sometimes even six,” said Iga świątek, n ° 2, at a press conference last August. “Our schedule is crazy, and it goes crazier each year, which is frightening.”
The problem increases the problem of many high -level exhibition tournaments throughout the year. Alcaraz, who voluntarily participated in the Netflix Slam, the 6 Kings Slam and the Garden Cup exhibitions last year, told the BBC in September that the condensed sport calendar “will kill us in one way or another”.
Indeed, the above -mentioned PTPA report writes that “it is imperative to consider strategic adjustments to their playing hours” and that “the reduction in the number of games and the extension of the intervals between tournaments could prove to be beneficial”.
Neither the ATP nor the WTA made comments for this story.
Andrea Gaudenzi, the president of the ATP tour, suggested last fall that the best players could choose to play less exhibition and lower level events if they feel over-hosted, and that the eight masters of 1000 compulsory per year are “not much”.
For the moment, the expansion of the calendar continues tirelessly, while the Canada Open and the Cincinnati Open will drop to 12 -day events in 2025. But the discussion surrounding the physical requirements of the calendar has already started, and a sustained increase in injuries will only accelerate these discussions.
