tennis, injury

Things are really hotting up in the US Tennis Open as the top seeds all advanced into the Quarter finals at Flushing meadows. With the top seeds almost all avoiding each other, and providing there are no upsets, we could be looking at a very tasty semi final.

Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal all face inferior opposition and should qualify with relative ease. The match up of the quarter final will see the resurgent Andy Roddick face the Australian Open champion and third seed Novak Djokovic.

Roddick has looked strong throughout the tournament with his powerful and accurate serving and has no doubt been buoyed by the support of the home fans. Djokovic on the other hand has looked tired and this looks like one major tournament too far for the Serb.

Judging by the shape of Djokovic and the impressive form of Roddick so far in this tournament the American should progress to the Semi Final. Djokovic looked like he was running on fumes during his five set thriller against Tommy Robredo and other than general exhaustion the Serbian was struggling with a hip injury.

The most common hip problem is the hip pointer injury. This results from impact to the iliac crest of the pelvis and can lead to bleeding in the abdominal muscles. Hip injuries are tough to treat and often require athletes to endure a lengthy recovery time so if Djokovic’s injury worsens he may struggle to even face Roddick let alone beat him.

With Djokovic suffering from injury the main obstacle Roddick faces in giving men’s tennis in America a much needed boost is who he faces in the semi final. He has a terrible record against both Federer and Nadal and won’t relish facing the youthful Murray who has his own curse to break (namely that a British tennis players can win a grand slam).

Nevertheless Roddick has thus far enjoyed an excellent tournament and has arguably been the best player on show. His main weapon has always been his serve and when he is on his game there are few who can match it.

Roddick is able to rotate his shoulder at great speed and this is a highly specific skill requiring specialist conditioning. By maintaining a consistently fast and accurate serve Roddick is able to apply immense pressure to his opponent and having only dropped nine service points in his last match it may take a monumental effort to break him. This intimidating service can rattle an opponent and the condition of Djokovic, combined with the shaky form of Federer, could result in a lot of unforced errors!

	Author:	The Sports Nut (The Sports Nut's profile, The Sports Nut's blog)
	Posted On:	Wed, 2008-09-03 16:41
	Tags:	tennis and injury
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