The top tennis players who competed in the Miami Open at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens are well-trained, but matches can last two hours or more, and that can throw their bodies into disarray, he explains. John Uribe, M.D., orthopedic surgeon, Miami Open tournament doctor and chief medical officer of Baptist Health Orthopedic Care.
John Uribe, MD, orthopedic surgeon, Miami Open tournament physician and chief medical officer for Baptist Health Orthopedic Care.
Once once more, the Institute was the official health care provider for the Miami Open, with its doctors monitoring players for any strains, sprains or injuries, most commonly affecting the shoulders, elbows or knees.
“Professional athletes have the highest level of human performance,” says Dr. Uribe. “But this requires an enormous amount of – not just hand-eye coordination and speed – but it basically uses all the important parts of the body. No doubt they do the stretching and all that, but some of these matches that can go on for hours and hours really take a toll on them. The body can’t take it all.”
When players serve at the Miami Open or swing their racket forehand or backhand, they are putting a lot of pressure on the muscles that make up the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff, a group of four muscles that come together as tendons, is just one common source of injury, explains Dr. Uribe. He says it’s good for players to warm up before a game, a key practice that helps prevent some injuries.
“Like any sport…it’s best to warm up, whether you start hitting around the grid on the court, jogging around the court a little bit, just to get your core temperature up, and then do your stretches,” Dr. Uribe said. . “And then the muscles will tend to be much more flexible and will adapt to it much faster than with a simple cold stretch.”
The most common injuries among professional tennis players are overuse of the shoulders, which can be due to poor conditioning; stress fractures, as a result of training too fast; muscle strains, which can be caused by quick, jerky movements; and varying degrees of strain or worse in the knees, Achilles tendon, and ankles.
And then there’s the fairly well-known problem among players of all levels that can develop over time: “tennis elbow.” This condition consists of an inflammation or a small tear of the tendons that attach the muscles of the forearm to the outside of the elbow. It is also the muscle that is used the most when the tennis ball hits the racket.
“Some of the typical injuries we see are more of the overuse type, like tendonitis, and that can start anywhere,” explains Dr. Uribe. “The rotator cuff in the shoulder, the tendons in the elbow, the turret tendon in the knee, the quadriceps tendon in the knee, the Achilles tendon… all of those tendons take a good hit in tennis.”
