The huge impact of overlooked injuries, physical, emotional and financial distress in a player’s career

“This has been painful and exhausting, not just on my body, but on my mind…” says Nicole Vaidisova a 27 year old Czech WTA player who after years of recurring injuries and too often lackluster tennis performances retired July 20, 2016 after 13 years on tour. She’d been out for more than 4 years at any given time with shoulder injuries and then surgeries but the grit and grind had gotten to her. She’s played the best — Venus, Stosur, Jankovic and Azarenka to name a few. 

But retirement from tennis is bittersweet for all who leave because the physical and emotional aspect of trying to win matches has overworked them. Everyone isn’t in Nicole’s position of retiring; for many are on the injured list with everyday struggles of healing physically, getting back on the court and then re-injuring themselves, to emotionally becoming mentally tough again to win matches because of the love of the game but also because of trying to financially support themselves. British WTA player, Laura Robson knows well the struggle of recurring ailments after wrist surgery. It is a hard court road to see comrades play a tournament and know that you can’t. She says “I think it’s always been mental. You can be the fittest player in the world, but if you are not there mentally, then it’s extremely hard to do well”. Players like Laura and many more have been out years at a time and had to apply for ‘protected ranking’, so that at the time of injury they can hold on to their ranking without falling into the high hundreds, having to maybe play ITF Challenger/Futures again as they did at the beginning of their careers. Players know that there really is no paycheck …

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