Injuries take over Women's Tennis
as Acura Classic gets the boots
(by Nick Nguyen, Specialist to Tennis Mates)

August 5, 2005 - Not even $189,000 and a new Acura can heal the injuries dominating the WTA tour’s marquee stars.

When the draw for the 2005 Acura classic came out at the beginning of the year, it resembled that of a grand slam’s draw with six top ten and former grand slam champions entered.  but with two more days to go before the tournament begins; only one is left in the field.

Six former champions-eight, counting pierce and Conchita Martinez, though both are no longer in the top ten- including Justine Henin-Hardenne, Venus and Serena Williams, Lindsay davenport, Maria Sharapova, and Svetlana Kuznetsova were all on the list of participating players committed for acura classic.  with the withdrawals of the first five, only Kuznetsova is left in the main draw this week.

Henin-Hardenne, the 2003 Acura classic champion, was the first top player to withdraw from the tournament due to a nagging hamstring. Serena and Sharapova withdrew last week, with Serena still being bothered by the same injured left ankle she has been suffering all year and Sharapova a lower back strain.

Davenport, after deciding that her back is still bothering her, decided to withdraw from the tournament.

The only one that is suffering from no injury is Venus Williams, but she has decided to bypass both the Acura classic and JP Morgan chase open for a smaller tier 4 event in Stockholm.

Jennifer Capriati is also another injured marquee star missing from the field.  Capriati has not played all year because of her shoulder surgery, but has planned a return to the tour after the u.s. open.

Amelie Mauresmo and Anastasia Myskina skipped the tournament all together.

So the only top ten and former grand slam winner to still be entered in the Acura classic this week is Kuznetsova. Along with Kuznetsova, two other former grand slams runners-up are still in the field: Kim Clijsters, who beat venus over the weekend to win bank of the west title, and Elena Dementieva.

Even with Kuznetsova, Clijsters, Dementieva, and pierce still in the draw, the fans are still left with one question, what the heck is going on with all these injuries?

Is it the racquet?  is it the top scheduling?  what is it?

The WTA tour had worked all last year to curtail the tournament schedule, which they have, cutting down on the amount of tournaments played a year and dropping off from their list tier 5 events.

Some players are complaining that the schedule is still too tough, with some tier 1 and 2 tournaments playing back to back-like Miami and Indian Wells, both tier 1 events, or even during the heated summer hard-court seasons prior to the u.s. open where these tournaments are played one week after another.

“There's so many tournaments spread out throughout the year so there's really no time to just recuperate.” Capriati said.

Another former number one, Monica Seles, who herself has not played since she suffered an injury at the 2004 French open, agrees with the heavy scheduling.

"The number of tournaments that you have to play to qualify for the rankings are really tough i think year in, year out," Seles said. "i have younger players coming up to me and they've been a few years on the tour and they're really tired. gosh, they should have at least another good five to seven years in them."

Others are focusing on the balls and the surfaces being played year round.  the transition between clay, grass, hard-court, and carpet are the four major surfaces played, with hard-court being played on the most.

"It's tough," davenport said. "people take for granted the difference in what's under your feet. switching surfaces is a jar on the muscles and if you go deep in a tournament, it's hard on your body. we had a period when everyone was starting to get healthy and now people are trying to take care off themselves the best they can."

With the u.s. open series continuing for the coming weeks, healthy or not, the WTA and ATP tour need to work together to derive some plans to conquer these injuries woos.  most of the top ten players in the atp tour are currently in an injury timeout.  the players include Federer, Roddick, Nedal, and Agassi; though he won the Mercedes-Benz cup last week.

If these injuries continue to dominate both the women and men’s tour, neither the fans, the players, nor the tours will benefit from it.

Press Contact:
Nick Nguyen
Nick.Nguyen@tennismates.com
Phone - 408-903-9513
Fax - 866-803-5321