Injuries at the Medibank – conspiracy or coincidence?

The gloss of the annual Sydney Tennis event was dampened slightly this week with the withdrawal of several notable players for various reasons, Darrell Halim reports, a conspiracy or coincidence?

With six high-profile players either withdrawing or retiring from their different matches at Sydney’s 2006 Medibank International, it’s kind of ironic that a private health insurance company is the sponsor.

Firstly, let’s look at the facts.

On Thursday, Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan was the most recent withdrawal from the Sydney tournament.

After a taxing straight-sets win over towering Croatian qualifier Ivo Karlovic, the world No.50 took his doctor’s advice and made the decision to rest a strained left thigh rather than push the injury and prolong the recovery process.

World No.35 Carlos Moya was the other pin-up male player to withdraw this week in Sydney, pulling out before his scheduled second round match against No.5 seed James Blake.

You can also add No.3 seed Thomas Johansson to this list as he withdrew from the tournament before even playing a match.

Not to be outdone, the women’s singles draw was hit even harder with four players either withdrawing or retiring from their scheduled matches.

World No.2 Kim Clijsters and No.6 Nadia Petrova were the biggest withdrawals of this year’s women’s draw, while a couple of other high-profile players in Daniela Hantuchova and Gisela Dulko ended their stay in Sydney by retiring mid-match.

In addition to this year’s withdrawals, No.3 seed Joachim Johansson and No.8 seed Taylor Dent were withdrawals in the men’s draw, while No.1 seed Lindsay Davenport, No.3 seed Elena Dementieva, and No.5 seed Nadia Petrova were casualties in the women’s event during last year’s Medibank International.

However, where the coincidence lies is in the sponsorship takeover of the Sydney event.

Up until 2004, the Sydney International was known as the Adidas International, with Medibank Private taking over as the major sponsor and given the naming rights in 2005 – the year when player injuries and withdrawals began to escalate.

Conspiracy or coincidence?

Surely there isn’t some kind of conspiracy behind Medibank Private being the major sponsor of the Sydney International event.

Maybe the increase in player withdrawals is due to the fact that the Sydney event is at the start of the professional season – a period of the season where most players have to travel from afar to compete in the hot Australian summer.

Or maybe the increase in player withdrawals has to do with the fact that one of the four major tournaments of the year – the Australian Open – begins in the following week and that many players prefer to take extra caution and be healthy for the start of the superior Melbourne tournament.

Or maybe it’s got to do with the gruelling schedule that professional tennis players now face (but I think it’s best I leave that argument for another time).

I suggest that the reason is one of the latter three.

However, when I asked the gentle Srichaphan whether he still would have pulled out if the Australian Open was not in the week that followed, Srichaphan insisted that he would have.

“If I didn’t feel better, I probably would have to do it,” said the Thai.

But you can (probably) be equally sure that the increase in player withdrawals in the past two years is not related in any way with the introduction of Medibank Private to the event.

If it’s not any of the reasons given above, then maybe, as a few people including players and tournament organisers have said during the week, “it’s just one of those things.”

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