SUMMER HEAT DOWNUNDER: April 2011

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Milos Raonic of Canada plays a volley in his match against Michael Llodra of France during Day One of the ATP Masters Series Tennis at the Monte Carlo Country Club on April 10, 2011 in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Photograph by: Julian Finney, Getty Images

MONTE CARLO, Monaco — Rising Canadian tennis star Milos Raonic won his first senior ATP match played on clay Sunday, beating Michael Llodra of France 6-3, 0-6, 6-0 in first-round action at the Monte Carlo Masters.

Raonic, 20, of Thornhill, Ont., beat Llodra in their only other ATP Tour meeting, in the second round of the Australian Open two months ago.

Raonic will face either 14th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine or Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in the second round.

Raonic’s booming serve is the key to his game, rendered less dangerous when playing on clay.

Still, Raonic said he’s growing accustomed to the slower surface.

“I’m liking it more and more by the day,” Raonic said of playing on clay. “I look quite frustrated because I always want to win, but it’s fun. It’s a lot more fun than I might show.

“As long as it keeps getting better day to day, week by week, I’ll be smiling more and more.”

Raonic entered the match ranked 35th in the world, while Llodra was ranked 24th.

Raonic’s previous clay experience was in a French Open junior loss and several Futures matches while a teenager.

Last month, however, he won both of his matches on the surface in Canada’s Davis Cup first-round victory at Mexico City.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

ATP INJURY PREVENTION

We’re taught from a young age that prevention is better than cure. That’s particularly true when it comes to tennis injuries.

Since 2006 the ATP has conducted player performance and injury prevention screenings three or four times a year at key events like Indian Wells, Madrid and Cincinnati. At these selected events a physical therapist and orthopedic surgeon provide a 30-minute one-on-one voluntary evaluation with players in a screening programme to check for warning signs of injury. These ATP medical staff members look at a player’s injury history and run them through a series of measures and performance movements, including muscle and flexibility tests, to identify potential problems and, if needed, tailor an individualized training regimen. “It’s one thing to provide treatment for all these injuries, but the more important question is how do we try to prevent them in the first place,” says Todd Ellenbecker, Director of Sports Medicine for the ATP.

When looking for problems, one warning sign is if the right shoulder of a right-handed player is weaker than his left shoulder (and vice-versa for left-handers). “If the rotator cuff of the dominant shoulder is weaker than the non-dominant side that concerns us and we’d look to put that player on a shoulder-strengthening programme,” Ellenbecker says. “A player should have similar strength, if not more, on his dominant side.”

Tennis players typically lose some internal rotation flexibility on their dominant shoulder, but if significant flexibility is lost, that may lead to closer monitoring and improvement can be made with specific stretches. The screening evaluation also involves up to five tests for core stability (stomach, back, muscles of the mid section). Almost all players have very good core stability, which is important for preventing back injuries.

If a player doesn’t have a really high level of core stability, a specific programme is given to strengthen these important muscles for both injury prevention and of course to enhance a player’s performance.

Shoulder tests have been an important part of the screening programme since it was launched in 2006. ATP medical staff measure the internal and external rotation range of motion to ensure flexibility is not limited. A device is also used to measure muscular strength of the rotator cuff in a very precise way. “If a player loses range of motion or strength in their shoulder we know they are susceptible to injury,” Ellenbecker says. “A player who is found to have shoulder weakness is given an exercise programme and a list of things he can do to improve these deficiencies. Free exercise equipment from Thera-band is provided for the players going through the programme as we are confident that these products provide a great training stimulus and very importantly, can be taken with the player as they travel around the world so they are never without the right equipment to get their workout done.”

Remedial work to increase shoulder strength typically involves the use of elastic tubes and bands, which players can easily throw in their bag to take on the road. Work with small medicine balls is also often recommended. Ellenbecker says, “If we find a deficiency during the screening it’s not enough for us to say, ‘Hey you’ve got problems, see you later.’ So we structure a self-sufficient training programme they can follow on the road where they may not have access for fancy equipment. And they can check in with an ATP physio at a tournament if they have any questions.”

Players are encouraged to be tested multiple times a year so improvement can be monitored. “One of the most rewarding parts of the programme is when we see the deficiencies identified through the screening phase have gone,” Ellenbecker says.

ATP STAFF

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

PROSTATE SCREENING

Screening men for prostate cancer appears to have no significant impact on prostate cancer mortality, Swedish researchers reported in the BMJ (British Medical Journal). Screening for prostate cancer is common throughout most of the world, however, experts continue to disagree on whether their alleged life-protecting benefits are outweighed by overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute examined a trial involving 9,026 males aged 50-59 years from Sweden's National Population Register.

1,494 of them were selected at random for prostate screening every year from 1987 to 1996. The remainder were controls (7,532 men).

The first two screenings only involved a digital rectal exam. From 1993 the screening involved both a digital rectal exam and a PSA (prostate specific antigen) test. In 1996, the fourth screening, only males up to the age of 69 years were invited.

The investigators included all the participants diagnosed with cancer up to December 31, 1999. They monitored survival rates until December 31, 2008.

5.7% (85) men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in the screened group and 3.9% (292) in the control group. Tumors were small and more frequently localized in the screened group.

The authors report that their analysis revealed no significantly longer survival or overall survival among the screened men with prostate cancer versus the control group.

A BMJ communiqué wrote:

"And while screening and treating men with detected tumours might reduce deaths specifically from prostate cancer by up to a third (at best), this would be at considerable risk of worrying overdetection and unpleasant or harmful overtreatment. Indeed, a previous trial found that to prevent one death from prostate cancer, 1,410 men would need to be screened and 48 treated. "

Before being screened, patients should be told about the risk of treatment, plus the anxiety and worry resulting from false-positive test results, the authors believe.

They add that future screenings should discriminate between indolent (slow growing) tumors and high risk ones. Less aggressive treatment should be the norm for indolent tumors. The aim should not be to simply seek to optimize the sensitivity of diagnostic tests.

The researchers concluded:

"After 20 years of follow-up, the rate of death from prostate cancer did not differ significantly between men in the screening group and those in the control group."

MEDICAL NEWS TODAY

EXERCISE AND HEART MASS

By Ransdell Pierson, ReutersApril 4, 2011

The first study to evaluate the effects of varying levels of lifelong exercise on heart mass was presented on Saturday at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans.

Consistent lifelong exercise preserves heart muscle in the elderly to levels that match or even exceed that of healthy young sedentary people, a surprising finding that underscores the value of regular exercise training, according to a new study.

The first study to evaluate the effects of varying levels of lifelong exercise on heart mass was presented on Saturday at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans.

It suggested that physical activity preserves the heart's youthful elasticity, showing that when people were sedentary, the mass of their hearts shrunk with each passing decade.

By contrast, elderly people with a documented history of exercising six to seven times a week throughout adulthood not only kept their heart mass, but built upon it -- having heart masses greater than sedentary healthy adults aged 25 to 34.

"One thing that characterizes the aging process by itself is the loss of muscle mass, particularly skeletal muscle," said Dr. Paul Bhella, a researcher from John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas who presented the study at the conference.

"But we are showing that this process is not unique to skeletal muscle, it also happens in cardiac muscle," he said. "A heart muscle that atrophies is weaker."

The study enrolled 121 healthy people with no history of heart disease. Fifty nine were sedentary subjects recruited from the Dallas Heart Study, a large multiethnic sample of Dallas County residents.

Some 62 lifelong exercisers, all over age 65, were recruited mainly from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study, which had documented their exercise habits over a period of 25 years.

In the new study, exercise was assessed by the number of aerobic exercise sessions per week, rather than intensity or duration. Subjects were broken down into four groups: non-exercisers; casual exercisers (two to three times a week); committed exercisers (four to five times a week) and master athletes (six to seven times a week).

Heart mass measurements, taken using MRIs, showed that sedentary subjects had diminished heart mass as they aged, while lifelong exercisers had heart mass expansion with increasing frequency of exercise.

"The data suggest that if we can identify people in middle age, in the 45 to 60 year range, and get them to exercise four to five times a week, this may go a very long way in preventing some of the major heart conditions of old age, including heart failure," said Benjamin Levine of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who headed the study.

Friday, April 1, 2011

FIRST, WE LEARN TO WALK, THEN RUN

SUMMER HEAT DOWNUNDER

Thursday, April 28, 2011

RAONIC INTO QUARTERS

(AFP) ESTORIL, Portugal

Canadian Milos Raonic reached his first career quarter-final on clay with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Portugal's Joao Sousa at the ATP-WTA Estoril Open here on Thursday.

Raonic, seeded fifth and ranked 26th, kept his level high on the clay as he prepares to play as a seed at Roland Garros starting May 22.

The youngster who began the season just inside the Top 200 before breaking through with a title in San Jose and final a week later in Memphis, will Friday face the French fourth seed Gilles Simon.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

TOMMY HAAS

GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany, April 26 (Reuters) - Former world number two Tommy Haas made his comeback on Tuesday after missing 14 months through injury when he competed in the doubles event at the Munich Open.

The 33-year-old German, who had reached his career-high ranking in May 2002 and played in four grand slam semi-finals, has won 12 singles titles but has been plagued by injuries for much of his career.

Haas, who has also taken on U.S. nationality, partnered close friend and Florida neighbour Czech Radek Stepanek but lost to Sweden's Simon Aspelin and Australian Paul Hanley 2-6 6-3 10-8.

"I would have also liked to play in the singles but I have not reached that point yet," Haas told reporters. "It was good experience but we came up a bit short."

He had last played on Feb. 22, 2010 at the Delray Beach International, following which he underwent hip and elbow surgery.

(Writing by Karolos Grohmann, Editing by Mark Meadows and Pritha Sarkar; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

Thursday, April 21, 2011

PLAYERS AND THEIR STRINGS

Where two tensions are shown the first is the tension of the main strings, and the second is the tension of the cross strings.

Latest Update: Hopman Cup/Doha/Sydney/Australian Open - January 2011

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