Jannik Sinner became the biggest name to join the growing list of US Open absentees when he confirmed his knee injury will rule him out of the final Grand Slam of the year, with the debate over why so many top players are picking up long-term injuries back on the agenda.
Former US Open semi-finalist is facing an uncertain future in the sport as his ongoing bone bruising injury in his arm shows no sign of healing, while Carlos Alcaraz is making his comeback in New York after missing the last four months with a wrist injury.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Ethan Quinn, Sebastian Korda, Holger Rune, Gabriel Diallo and Emilio Nava are all out of the men’s draw for the US Open, while Victoria Mboko, Hailey Baptiste, Emma Raducanu and Ajla Tomljanovic are on the absentee list for the women’s draw.
Now the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) have released details of a huge increase in injury issues for top players.
Their statistics confirm upper-body injuries are up 42%, arm injuries have increased by 112%, match-ending injuries are up 53% and re-injuries are 55%.
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Now Serena Williams’ former coach Patrick Mouratoglou has given his verdict on the injury numbers served up by the PTPA, as he suggested there may be several factors behind the surge in injuries.
“Those figures are concerning,” declared Mouratoglou on a LinkedIn post. “They come from a PTPA injury analysis comparing Q1 2026 with the average Q1 figures from the previous seven years and with a rolling 12-month average over the previous seven years.
“The calendar is often presented as the obvious explanation for this increase. I’m not convinced.
“I’m not saying the tennis calendar is perfect. The Masters 1000 events have become longer, but players aren’t necessarily playing more matches and they have more recovery time between some of them. For me, that alone doesn’t explain such a dramatic increase.
“There is another detail in these numbers that I find particularly interesting: the injuries increasing so sharply are upper-body injuries.
“That makes me look elsewhere. The first thing I would investigate is the evolution of the surfaces.
“Since the early 2000s, surfaces have progressively become slower and more homogeneous. Grass is a very good example. There was a time when even clay-court players had to serve and volley there. Today, most players stay at the baseline.
“This evolution has also reduced the variety of playing styles. Players spend much more time exchanging from the baseline at very high intensity, hitting the ball extremely hard over and over again. That creates enormous stress on the arm, elbow and shoulder.
“Then there are the balls. Players can compete with one type of ball one week and a completely different one the next. Some are heavier, some lighter, some more explosive. The upper body constantly has to adapt to different stresses.
“I’ve also heard many players complain about how quickly some balls lose their qualities. When the ball becomes less lively, producing the same depth, pace and weight requires more effort. Multiply that by thousands of shots in practice and competition, and it’s something worth investigating seriously.”
With sports science moving to a very different level of excellence in recent years, players should be in a better position to avoid injuries, with Mourtoglou confused by the rise in numbers of players in the treatment room.
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“I find these numbers even more frustrating because sports medicine and physical preparation have improved enormously,” he added.
“When I started my Academy in 1996, I was already working with top physios who explained how much could be done through injury prevention. Over the last 20 years, that work has become incredibly sophisticated. And now we’re seeing numbers moving dramatically in the wrong direction.
“I don’t pretend to have the definitive explanation, but these figures should push the governing bodies to investigate the surfaces, the balls and every factor that could explain why upper-body injuries are increasing so sharply.
“Find the causes, then find solutions. Because these numbers are not acceptable for the health of the players.”
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