Game, Set & Health – Your 2026 Guide to Playing Tennis Without the Pain

Jack Draper returns to grass this season carrying something most players understand better than any ranking statistic: the frustration of injury pulling you off the court just when you're playing your best. Whether you're watching him or your favourite player at Wimbledon or heading to St Clement's, the Caesarean or Les Quennevais for your own weekend match, the tennis season has a way of exposing everything your body has been quietly tolerating.

I've been playing once or twice a week for years, and the injury I manage most closely isn't the one most people expect. It's my hips. The explosive lunges, the rapid pivots, the lateral sprints – they're what make tennis exhilarating, and they're also what quietly stress your hips over time if you're not paying attention. I didn't take it seriously until it started affecting how I moved on court. Now daily glute stretching and strengthening is as non-negotiable as showing up to play. That shift – from reactive to proactive – is what this piece is really about.

The injuries that end seasons – and how to stay ahead of them

Tennis is fast, repetitive, and rotational. That combination puts consistent stress on the same joints and tendons, week after week. Most common injuries aren't bad luck – they're accumulated compensations. Here are some of the common ones and what you can do about them:

🎾 Tennis elbow – That nagging ache when gripping your racket. Repetitive swinging irritates the tendons around the elbow over time. Wrist curls, reverse wrist curls, and forearm stretches with a resistance band address the weakness driving it. Check your grip size too – one that's too small is a common and easily fixed contributor.

🏋️ Rotator cuff – Your shoulder works hard through every serve and smash, and it has a limited tolerance for strain without adequate support. Resistance band exercises and scapular push-ups build the stability that keeps it healthy. A proper warm-up is essential here – it's the difference between a full season and a physio referral.

💥 Hip wear and tear – See above. If your hips are starting to talk to you, don't wait until they're shouting. Gentle lunges, hip flexor stretches, and glute strengthening every day – not just on match days.

✋ Wrist strain – The final link between your body and the racket. Repetitive topspin strokes in particular lead to tendinitis over time. Wrist strengthening exercises, good backhand technique, and appropriate grip and string tension all matter. Don't push through wrist pain – it rarely resolves without intervention.

🦵 Knee tendonitis – Quick stops, starts, and lateral movements create patellar tendinitis when your supporting muscles aren't strong enough to absorb the load. Squats, lunges, and lateral band walks build the quad and hamstring strength your knees need. Footwear with proper shock absorption is underrated here.

🤕 Sprained ankles – The most common on-court injury, and one of the most preventable. Balance drills and ankle-strengthening exercises keep you nimble. Remind yourself to land softly when changing direction – it becomes automatic with practice.

🩹 Lower back pain – Powerful strokes, pivots, and explosive movements accumulate in the lower back over time. A strong core is your best defence: supermans, bird-dogs, and gentle back stretches. Low-impact cross-training – swimming or cycling between matches – gives your spine a break it genuinely needs.

The fundamentals most amateur players skip

Targeting specific injuries only gets you so far. These three areas underpin everything:

• Core stability – Supermans, bird-dogs, and Russian twists protect your spine and power your game. Medicine ball rotational throws add dynamic strength that translates directly onto court – start light and make sure your back is properly warm before adding rotational load.

• Lower body conditioning – Lunges, squats, and lateral band walks support your hips and knees. Agility ladder work sharpens the footwork that everything else depends on.

• Recovery – Dynamic stretching before play, static stretching afterwards. Foam rolling between sessions releases muscle tension before it builds into injury. This is where most amateur players underinvest – and where they pay the price as the season progresses.

When to get assessed, not just treated

This is where it’s worth taking a different approach. Most people come to see us at Orchard Chiropractic when something hurts badly enough that they can't ignore it. By that point, the injury has usually been developing for weeks or months.

At Orchard, we work with tennis players at every stage – from acute injuries through to the kind of low-grade, persistent niggles that never quite go away. What we offer goes beyond adjustments:

• Spinal and joint adjustments restore range of motion, reduce nerve interference, and ease the mechanical stress that builds in the lower back, shoulders, and neck through repetitive play.

• Sacro Occipital Technique (SOT) is a specialist approach that focuses on the relationship between the sacrum – the base of your spine – and the occiput at the base of your skull. The rotational demands of tennis subtly disrupt pelvic and spinal alignment over time, affecting serve mechanics, hip mobility, and overall movement efficiency. SOT helps restore that balance before compensation patterns become injury.

• Soft tissue therapy targets tight or inflamed muscles, tendons, and ligaments to accelerate healing and reduce re-injury risk.

• Biomechanical assessments identify how you're moving and where your body is creating unnecessary wear and tear – often in places you wouldn't expect.

Draper's return from injury this season is a reminder that even elite players struggle. The difference is that they have support systems built around preventing the next problem, not just treating the current one. If you're playing regularly this summer – in Jersey or anywhere else – that's worth thinking about.