WTA working on injury-free structure
CEO Simon promises work in progress to ensure players are taken care of
The CEO of women’s tennis has promised to put a definite structure in place to enable players to start and end the season on a healthy note.
Steve Simon, who was briefly in Dubai for the annual Dubai Tennis Championships, insisted that the WTA has been attentive to needs being voiced by players from time to time.
The demands of modern-day tennis have been so severe that players have persistently complained either of burnout or injuries that waylays their careers. “The last thing we want is an injured player. And the last thing the player wants is to be injured. They all want to play. That’s what they do best,” Simon said.
“The game has become much more athletic and much more physical. And you see it with the level of play out there. One of the goals we need to focus is to create s healthy structure or a healthiest structure, if that is possible, with a goal that allows the athlete the best opportunity to get through the year fit and healthy,” he added.
Things getting faster
With the balls and courts getting faster, players have struggled in recent years to keep off the injury list. The governing bodies for the sport and players have constantly been at loggerheads at finding amicable solutions over the years, and the need for a concrete structure has not been felt more so now with the injury list growing even at the start of a season.
Prominent among those injured are top ten players such as Simona Halep with a persistent knee injury, Victoria Azarenka with a troublesome ankle and Maria Sharapova with a shoulder that has worried her.
“We are looking at this very seriously by listening and understanding what we have to do to balance with all of our partnerships,” Simon admitted.