Abstract
The aim of this study was to prospectively make a survey of injuries in junior players from a Swedish local tennis club during a 2-year period in relation to gender, anatomic location, month of the year when injured, injury type and injury severity. All 12–18 years old members in a tennis club playing more than twice weekly were asked to participate. Fifty-five junior tennis players, 35 boys and 20 girls accepted to participate. All tennis-related injuries were prospectively registered and evaluated. Time of exposure for playing tennis was recorded. Thirty-nine players sustained 100 injuries, 73 in boys and 27 in girls. Injury incidence for boys was 1.7 injuries/1000 h of tennis playing time and for girls 0.6 injuries/1000 h. Ankle sprains, low back pain and knee injuries were the most common ones. Sixty-five percent were new injuries, and the majority of these injuries were located at the knee joint followed by the ankle joint, while most of the recurrent injuries were found in the lumbar spine. Boys suffered mainly from low back pain and ankle injuries and girls from low back pain and knee injuries. Forty-three percent of the injuries caused absence from tennis for more than 4 weeks and 31% more than 1 week.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beachy G, Akau CK, Martinson M, Olderr TE (1997) High school sports injuries: a longitudinal study at Punahou School: 1988–1996. Am J Sports Med 25:675–681
Fuller CW, Ekstrand J, Junge A et al (2006) Consensus statement on injury definitions and data collection procedures in studies of football (soccer) injuries. Scand J Med Sci Sports 16:83–92
Hagglund M, Waldén M, Ekstrand J (2006) Previous injury as a risk factor for injury in elite football: a prospective study over 2 consecutive seasons. Br J Sports Med 40:767–772
Hutchinson MR, Laprade RF, Burnett QM et al (1995) Injury surveillance at the USTA Boy’s Tennis Championships: a 6-yr study. Med Sci Sports Exerc 27:826–830
Kibler WB, Safran M (2005) Tennis injuries. Med Sports Sci 48:120–137
Lanese RR, Strauss RH, Leizman DJ, Rotondi AM (1990) Injury and disability in matched mens’ and womens’ intercollegiate sports. Am J Public Health 80:1459–1462
Miller S (2006) Modern tennis rackets, balls, and surfaces. Br J Sports Med 40:401–405
Orchard J (1995) Orchard sports injury classification system. In: Bloomfield J, Fricker P, Fitch K (eds) Science and medicine in sport, 2nd edn. Blackwell, Carlton, pp 674–681
Pluim BM, Staal JB (2010) Tennis. In: Caine DJ, Harmer PA, Schiff MA (eds) Epidemiology of injury in olympic sports, 1st edn. Wiley, Oxford, pp 277–293
Pluim BM, Staal JB, Windler GE et al (2006) Tennis injuries: occurrence, aetiology, and prevention. Br J Sports Med 40:415–423
Reece L, Fricker P, Maguire K (1986) Injuries to elite young tennis players at the Australian Institute of sport. Aust J Sci Med Sport 18:11–15
Schick DM, Meeuwisse WH (2003) Injury rates and profiles in female ice hockey players. Am J Sports Med 31:47–52
Silva RT, Takahashi R, Berra B et al (2003) Medical assistance at the Brazilian juniors tennis circuit—a one-year prospective study. J Sci Med Sport 6:14–18
Steinbruck K (1999) Epidemiology of sports injuries—25-year-analysis of sports orthopaedic-traumatologic ambulatory care. Sportverletz Sportschaden 13:38–52
Taimela S, Kujala UM, Osterman K (1990) Intrinsic risk factors and athletic injuries. Sports Med 9:205–215
Winge S, Jorgensen U, Lassen Nielsen A (1989) Epidemiology of injuries in Danish championship tennis. Int J Sports Med 10:368–371
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hjelm, N., Werner, S. & Renstrom, P. Injury profile in junior tennis players: a prospective two year study. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 18, 845–850 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-010-1094-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-010-1094-4