Quarantine can’t be discounted as the cause of high injury toll

THE toll of a two-week quarantine has been the reason for the raft of injuries that has devastated this year’s Australian Open, according to a leading authority in tennis fitness.

A lack of match fitness, two weeks of relative inactivity and gruelling contests have all played their part to cruel this year’s tournament – with seeded stars Matteo Berrettini (9th) and Casper Ruud (24) pulling out of their fourth-round matches on Monday with abdominal injuries.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has suffered through the past two matches, as had his quarter-final opponent Alexander Zverev with a similar complaint, while third seed Dominic Thiem laboured through his fourth-round defeat to Grigor Dimitrov, and in the women’s draw Johanna Konta and Karolína Muchova have also struggled.

Sean Fyfe, who has worked for Tennis Australia and on the

ATP Tour and with stars Ashleigh Barty, John Millman and James Duckworth in a coaching and physiotherapy capacity, said the quarantine impact could not be ignored.

“They haven’t had that intensity of training or match fitness, therefore they get fatigued easier. When they try and back up again, stiffer and sorer, the chances of injuries are higher,” the internationally renowned sports physiotherapist told News Corp on Tuesday.

World No.2 Rafael Nadal said the decision on whether to play on, especially in a grand slam, was an extremely tough one – referencing playing with a small abdominal strain at the US Open in 2009, where he lost in the semi-finals to Juan Martin del Potro.

“I start with six millimetres or so of strain and I finished the tournament with 26 millimetres,” he said. “Of course it wasn’t a smart decision.”

That feeling was echoed by Berrattini after his withdrawal.

“I felt something in my ab. I thought that wasn’t something really big, but the next day when I woke up I felt it was big. The doctors told me I can get really worse, so it’s not worth the try,” Berrattini said.

There were 72 players who were forced into a two-week hard quarantine upon arrival in Australia after a COVID-19 scare sent shockwaves through players’ preparations – but even those who avoided the harshest conditions, and able to train five hours a day, were feeling the effects, Fyfe said.

Worryingly for those heading deep in the second week, the likelihood of injuries could increase as the tougher matches take their toll.

“It’s where they’ve gone deeper in the tournament, and those who have had tougher matches like Berrettini against (Kevin) Anderson, it’s those that have had tougher matches earlier that haven’t been able to back up,’’ Fyfe said.