Tennis History Of
is there any in the history of tennis someone collapsed while playing due to tiredness or for any reason?
Not so much from tiredness but like previous posters have mentioned injury and cramps from dehydration. So drink plenty of water before and during.
There was the one line judge that got hit in the groin by a Stefan Edberg serve and fell down and later died. That is the only fatality that I can recall.
“The freakiest sports fatality occurred on the tennis court. At the Junior Boys’ Final of the 1983 U.S. Open, linesman Richard Wertheim was hit in the groin by a serve from eventual champion Stefan Edberg. Wertheim toppled backward, hitting his head on the court. He died in the hospital five days later of a subdural hematoma.”
During the 1990 AO the second-seeded Gabriela Sabatini collapsed after charging a drop shot and winning the point to take a 6-2, 1-0 lead over Claudia Porwik of West Germany. She was taken off the court in a wheelchair.
At Dubai 2003 in his first match for 11 months, Ivanisevic collapsed in agony after injuring his left knee after 44 minutes of a contest against Andrei Stoliarov, a Russian qualifier. He was running, slid almost doing the splits. Ivanisevic was relieved to be told after being taken to hospital that the damage was not more than a strained ligament. Also he was in a collision with Mark Philippoussis in Toronto, Canada while in a doubles match in the late 1990s, Ivanisevic decided to head the ball over the net. He arrived at the same time as Philippoussis, running forward to play a conventional shot, and their heads banged together. Ivanisevic required stitches and Philippoussis was concussed.
And also in the Mid East recently at the Qatar Open Ana Ivanovic sustained damage to her left ankle only four points from the end of a straight sets victory over Olga Govortsova.
Ivanovic collapsed after trying to turn just behind the baseline, sat there in tears with the pain for several minutes and considered quitting there and then. However despite only being able to move with a limp she was persuaded that she might be able to finish the match, which she did by ripping three trademark ground stroke winners.
I can’t think of any other collapses or injuries off the top of my head other than the ones already mentioned.
