{"id":2680,"date":"2026-08-23T15:30:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T15:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2680"},"modified":"2026-08-23T15:30:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T15:30:44","slug":"jannik-sinner-leads-us-open-withdrawal-list-now-shocking-injury-statistics-have-emerged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2680","title":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner leads US Open withdrawal list \u2013 now shocking injury statistics have emerged"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jannik Sinner<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Ethan Quinn, Sebastian Korda, Holger Rune, Gabriel Diallo and Emilio Nava are all out of the men\u2019s draw for the US Open, while Victoria Mboko, Hailey Baptiste, Emma Raducanu and Ajla Tomljanovic are on the absentee list for the women\u2019s draw.<\/p>\n

Now the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) have released details of a huge increase in injury issues for top players.<\/p>\n

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%.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/h2>\n

Novak Djokovic handed huge US Open rankings boost as first Cincinnati Open finalist is confirmed<\/a><\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s US Open return branded a \u2018publicity stunt\u2019 as shock singles withdrawal predicted<\/a><\/p>\n

Now Serena Williams\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose figures are concerning,\u201d declared Mouratoglou on a LinkedIn post. \u201cThey 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe calendar is often presented as the obvious explanation for this increase. I\u2019m not convinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying the tennis calendar is perfect. The Masters 1000 events have become longer, but players aren\u2019t necessarily playing more matches and they have more recovery time between some of them. For me, that alone doesn\u2019t explain such a dramatic increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is another detail in these numbers that I find particularly interesting: the injuries increasing so sharply are upper-body injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat makes me look elsewhere. The first thing I would investigate is the evolution of the surfaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve 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\u2019s something worth investigating seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI find these numbers even more frustrating because sports medicine and physical preparation have improved enormously,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 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\u2019re seeing numbers moving dramatically in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cFind the causes, then find solutions. Because these numbers are not acceptable for the health of the players.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: All 16 withdrawals from US Open as former world No 4 joins Jannik Sinner, doubts over Elena Rybakina<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Jannik Sinner leads US Open withdrawal list \u2013 now shocking injury statistics have emerged<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}