Grigor Dimitrov suffering from Shoulder Tendinitis

[Zardoz7/12]

And it's forced him out of Rotterdam thus he'll lose the points he's defending. I'm no pro Tennis Player but I had tendinitis of my right rotator cuff and it hurt like hell especially playing the one hander. I hope he gets well ASAP.
Article Link

Bulgarian tennis player, Grigor Dimitrov will not play the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. As it turns out, he has suffered from shoulder tendinitis. The 27-year old has been dealing with this issue for a while, and he was forced to withdraw from the Dutch event.

 

[Deon Sanders]

There is no cure for generation uselessness

 

[Bartelby]

Dimitrov was not destined for ultimate greatness, but he has had an excellent career nevertheless so one hopes he heals.

 

[Deleted member 688153]

No slams this year then I guess

Hope he recovers quickly

 

[Bartelby]

He now has more time to sleep with attractive women, as long as he doesn't put his shoulder to the wheel.

 

[TheGhostOfAgassi]

No slams this year then I guess

Hope he recovers quickly

Shoulder problems is almost as bad as knee problems.
Maybe will never recover 100%.

 

[vive le beau jeu !]

bad news...
get better, grigor !

 

[MarcusInKensington]

How’s he supposed to become GOAT now? This is a disaster of epic proportions.

 

[Sysyphus]

that sucks out loud.

He struggled with shoulder injury about a year ago as well, at the AO and into the spring. Likely played through it too much without letting it fully heal. Such is the predicament of the ATP tour -- always gotta grind. It's an easy injury to re-flare as well -- tendons/joint might change due to the injury in ways that makes it easier to reinjure. Know from experience that rotator cuff issues can be annoying as..

Anyways, he's a pro athlete with top notch resources. In most cases it's perfectly possible to rehab well, and I'm sure he'll manage. It's been suggested that shoulder problems plague serious amateurs more than pros because they don't have the same resources/knowledge/diligence when it comes to prevention and rehab.

 

[George Turner]

There goes my annual bet on Grigor being Wimbledon Champ.

 

[wangs78]

If he needs to take a few months away from the tour to rehab, it might actually be good for him to come back witha fresh mind and perspective to perform better in big matches than he has. That's what I would do if I were him. Take a couple of months of and come back with no pressure. Although, in a way you could say he took half of 2018 off already with only 43 matches played!

 

[Nostradamus]

And it's forced him out of Rotterdam thus he'll lose the points he's defending. I'm no pro Tennis Play but I had tendinitis of my right rotator cuff and it hurt like hell especially playing the one hander. I hope he gets well ASAP.
Article Link

Bulgarian tennis player, Grigor Dimitrov will not play the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. As it turns out, he has suffered from shoulder tendinitis. The 27-year old has been dealing with this issue for a while, and he was forced to withdraw from the Dutch event.

No wonder this talented Baby fed lost to that upstart Tiafoe. I knew it had to be something.

 

[Deleted member 764118]

Get him on a plane to Finland. It’s over.

 

[George Turner]

If he needs to take a few months away from the tour to rehab, it might actually be good for him to come back witha fresh mind and perspective to perform better in big matches than he has. That's what I would do if I were him. Take a couple of months of and come back with no pressure. Although, in a way you could say he took half of 2018 off already with only 43 matches played!

I didn't get why he played the clay season last year when he already had the issue. His game is not suited for slow courts and he'll never be a threat on clay, it was a waste of time when he could have rested the shoulder.

 

[Red Rick]

that sucks out loud.

He struggled with shoulder injury about a year ago as well, at the AO and into the spring. Likely played through it too much without letting it fully heal. Such is the predicament of the ATP tour -- always gotta grind. It's an easy injury to re-flare as well -- tendons/joint might change due to the injury in ways that makes it easier to reinjure. Know from experience that rotator cuff issues can be annoying as..

Anyways, he's a pro athlete with top notch resources. In most cases it's perfectly possible to rehab well, and I'm sure he'll manage. It's been suggested that shoulder problems plague serious amateurs more than pros because they don't have the same resources/knowledge/diligence when it comes to prevention and rehab.

Honestly think the serve is the shot that's by far the easiest to hit big for an amateur by kinda winging it because it's similar to throwing something and it's by far the easiest single shot to injure yourself with.

 

[Red Rick]

Get him on a plane to Finland. It’s over.

 

[Sysyphus]

Honestly think the serve is the shot that's by far the easiest to hit big for an amateur by kinda winging it because it's similar to throwing something and it's by far the easiest single shot to injure yourself with.

Yes, I would think this contributes, especially at levels where subpar technique is prevalent.

The biggest thing is just the fact that any overhead throwing motion puts your shoulder into the 'impingement zone', where the rotator cuff tendons rub against the acromium of the shoulder blade. With enough overuse, this will quite simply wear on the tendons over time, especially with people who are born with smaller sub-acromial space. That's why so many baseball pitchers get these problems as well. Or even just people who work manual labor with overhead movements all day. Throwers and tennis players tend to develop some serious muscle imbalances that further exacerbate this (roughly speaking, the muscles that are involved in acceleration become much stronger than the muscles involved in deceleration).

The last point is why high-level amateurs supposedly get this injury the most: they play enough to get overuse, but don't have the resources to keep the muscular imbalances in check with prehab/physio the way the pros do. Tempting to think that a guy like Kyrgios isn't so diligent with the physio work, which might be why he continuously gets shoulder issues (could be wrong tho, he might just be unlucky).

 

[Red Rick]

Yup, the shoulders isn't self limiting to not throw harder than is good for you.

Other shots are probably less natural movements as well, so I would imagine the pro's have relatively much faster groundstrokes than serve compared to amateurs. I think plenty of amateurs can crack a serve in the 180+ range if they just have a fast arm.

 

[tennisfan2015]

Shoulder problems is almost as bad as knee problems.
Maybe will never recover 100%.

He will but it will take time. Took me (both shoulders) almost a year.

 

[TheGhostOfAgassi]

He will but it will take time. Took me (both shoulders) almost a year.

How did you get rid of it?
For a pro athlete having this as a job, shoulder injuries can be very hard to get rid of if you want to be on a high level.

 

[3lite]

Didn't Maria suffer from the same thing?

 

[BeatlesFan]

How’s he supposed to become GOAT now? This is a disaster of epic proportions.

And Andre won't be able to show up to every tournament and hock his coffee.

 

[tennisfan2015]

How did you get rid of it?
For a pro athlete having this as a job, shoulder injuries can be very hard to get rid of if you want to be on a high level.

Rest, rest, rest and rebuild. No weights. Kettlebells - various exercises. Stretching, and when muscle was built again careful conditioning. I have not had any pain in years. Nothing at all. I've got it from doing massive amounts of push ups. Thousands. I've started off with 80 push ups in one go and have built it up to 300 in one go. That would follow up with sets of 50 or 100 push ups with short rests in between. I've managed to do 1000 in 19 minutes and 2,400 in an hour. Considering I was 194cm / 96kg at the time I was quite big (long arms too) for such exercising. After getting a single corticosterioid injection in my left shoulder I've decided to skip the further treatment that would include more of these and rested it instead. I've kept stretching it though. Ever since, I've learned my lesson, I've dropped the weights, particularly deadlifts, squats, half squats, even bench press and turned to own body weight exercising with kettlebells and calisthenics. No probs ever since. As we age the exercising regime should change too.

 

[MasturB]

Horrible serve mechanics.

 

[Enga]

Could it be because of his serve mechanics? I noticed that his serve is very similar to Federer's, except that he keeps his elbow and racket low during the preparation. Maybe this causes him to use his shoulder too much?

 

[Roddick85]

Yes, I would think this contributes, especially at levels where subpar technique is prevalent.

The biggest thing is just the fact that any overhead throwing motion puts your shoulder into the 'impingement zone', where the rotator cuff tendons rub against the acromium of the shoulder blade. With enough overuse, this will quite simply wear on the tendons over time, especially with people who are born with smaller sub-acromial space. That's why so many baseball pitchers get these problems as well. Or even just people who work manual labor with overhead movements all day. Throwers and tennis players tend to develop some serious muscle imbalances that further exacerbate this (roughly speaking, the muscles that are involved in acceleration become much stronger than the muscles involved in deceleration).

The last point is why high-level amateurs supposedly get this injury the most: they play enough to get overuse, but don't have the resources to keep the muscular imbalances in check with prehab/physio the way the pros do. Tempting to think that a guy like Kyrgios isn't so diligent with the physio work, which might be why he continuously gets shoulder issues (could be wrong tho, he might just be unlucky).

Great post, your explanations are spot on!
Unfortunately for me, I'm one of these "high level amateurs" who have been battling shoulder issues on/off since 2015 which affected my serve in a big way. I don't think there's any miracle cure for shoulder issues in tennis players, you can only try to manage and mitigate the issue. Strengthening your rotator cuff area and doing the typical "thrower's 10" exercises as prescribed by physios will help, but once you have shoulder issues, you'll always be vulnerable to those. You look at the last couple of years, top guys like Nadal, Wawrinka have had shoulder issues and those guys have top $$ to get the best physio looking after them 24/7 yet they still suffered from it. In Dimitrov's case, I believe he had the same shoulder issues at the beginning of last year, who knows if it ever really healed since?