[Injuries- and frequency of complaints in competitive tennis- and leisure sports].

Tennis is one of the most popular sporting activities in Germany and worldwide. According to this fact injuries and complaints associated with this sport are common in tennis players. Here a retrospective analysis was undertaken in 60 tennis players with and 50 tennis players without tournament experience. Injuries were seen in all players. The most common lesions were blisters, sunburn and abrasions (65.5 %) followed by cramps (51.8 %), strains (35.5 %) and sprains (25.5 %). More severe injuries like meniscal lesions or ruptures of the cruciate- and ankle-ligaments or the achilles tendon were found in 2 % to 4 %. Fractures were not seen in this study. The majority of tennis injuries occurred in the lower extremity (182 vs. 62) whereas chronic complaints domain in the upper extremity (38/91). Most of the injuries and complaints have been treated conservatively with good results. Only 3.3 % of all acute and 2.2 % of the chronic lesions were treated by surgical intervention.