The United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA) held their Midwest Board Meeting in Cincinnati during the Western and Southern Financial ATP Masters Series Event July 31st and August 1st of this last year. This allowed for an
opportunity to forge a relationship with STMS where the North American Regional STMS Conference was also being held. The interest in medical and scientific aspects of tennis injuries, injury risk, conditioning, and performance are a common interest between these two organizations. The USPTA held a Hall of
Fame Banquet the night before to honor Dave Power from Alpharetta, Georgia, formerly of Cincinnati. The morning session of the STMS featured “The Tournament Player” which featured talks from multiple disciplines in tennis and tennis medicine. Clay Sniteman, PT from ATP Sports Medicine Services opened the discussion with an enlightening talk on treating hip injuries in the professional tour player. Mark Kovacs, PhD, USTA Manager of Sports Science followed with a spectacular overview of the USTA training programs, and approach to physical development of the junior development players. Neeru Jayanthi, MD followed with a discussion of tournament injuries and medical withdrawal risks in junior tennis players, highlighting potential concerns of elevated risks in this population. The USPTA Exchange Lecture was given by Mark Faber, 3rd Vice President of USPTA Midwest Division, and highlighted some of the many environmental, physical, and even economic barriers to the development of high level junior tennis players. About 15 USPTA members, including board members attended this portion of the STMS conference, and provided a unique perspective to STMS attendees in their concerns of managing young competitive tennis players.
The STMS returned the favor with an on-court session for the USPTA members in attendance at the site of the ATP Master Series practice courts. Marc Safran, MD, President of STMS discussed common adaptions in tennis players, common injuries with on court demonstration of causative factors. Mark Kovacs, PhD demonstrated theories of dynamic warm up utilizing USPTA members as his models. With his USA Track and Field Sprints certification, he discussed methods to increase first step speed. Neeru Jayanthi, MD concluded the session with a
demonstration on return to tennis after specific injuries. He utilized USPTA members to demonstrate the functional progression to tennis based on specificity of the injury. The sessions were especially appealing to USPTA members as both Dr. Kovacs and Dr. Jayanthi are USPTA certified and active members. This should be an exciting beginning to two organizations invested in the education of its members on tennis medicine.
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