Former British No 1 Kyle Edmund has spoken about the possible reasons behind tennis’s mounting injury problems in an interview with Tennis365.

The issue has been impossible to ignore across both tours in 2026, with players repeatedly forced out of major events. Before Wimbledon’s main draw even began, 18 players had withdrawn across the men’s and women’s entry lists. Among those who have already spent extended periods sidelined in recent months are Carlos Alcaraz, Jack Draper, Emma Raducanu, Victoria Mboko and Lorenzo Musetti.

Edmund knows the physical strain of the sport as well as anyone. He retired in August 2025 at the age of 30 after a career interrupted by serious injury setbacks, and he said the modern game places a greater load on players than it did in the past.

“I think there’s no doubt the game is more physical, certainly being on the tour and speaking to ex-players… the demands, the way people are moving is physical,” said Edmund, who achieved a career-high ranking of world No 14

He also pointed to the packed schedule and the structure of the season as major contributors to the strain on bodies.

“There’s chat about the calendar, more days at the tournaments, the extended Masters events. [There’s] probably less downtime between the tournaments, so you don’t have time to do physical blocks to build your body up throughout the year. You’re very much maintaining.

“So apart from the off-season, you’re just maintaining throughout the year, and to maintain and do training where you’re just, not trying to increase your fitness, but just cope with the demands for 11 months of the year, can be a challenge.”

Edmund, who reached the semi-finals at the 2018 Australian Open, added that the balls used on tour may also be linked to more arm and wrist problems.

“There’s another thing: the balls. I don’t have stats with the balls, but the arm injuries, the wrist injuries… I had a wrist injury at the back end of my career. I never had any wrist injuries before… I don’t what that was,” said the two-time ATP Tour title winner.

“I was obviously coming back from a knee injury, so it might’ve just been I wasn’t ready for the demands of playing match after match.”

His view is echoed by several leading names. Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Alcaraz and Raducanu have all complained about the balls used on the tours in recent years, with Djokovic saying: “That’s probably the biggest difference I can notice, compared to maybe 10, 15 years ago. It’s the balls.”

In February 2025, Alcaraz said: “I think last year there were many injuries, many players with elbow or shoulder issues. It needs to change. I know they will change it.

“Every week, practically every week, we have different balls, different conditions, so it’s complicated to adapt to them.”

Felix Auger-Aliassime is celebrating his 100th career week inside the ATP Top 10 as the clay-court major approaches. The Canadian has reached the milestone in four separate stints: November 15th to 21st, 2001 (one week), January 10th to September 11th, 2022 (35 weeks), October 17th, 2022 to June 11th, 2023 (34 weeks) and October 27th, 2025 to present (30 weeks and counting).

Auger-Aliassime is currently at his career-high ranking of No. 5 and joins a small group of players born in the 2000s to accumulate triple-digit weeks in the elite. The draft notes he reached the mark “after exactly who you’re thinking.”

The milestone places him among the longest-serving Canadians to reach the Top 10. He becomes the second Canadian to log that many weeks at the top of the rankings, following Milos Raonic, who spent 151 weeks in the Top 10 across the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons. Denis Shapovalov is the only other Canadian to have reached the ATP Top 10, spending 10 weeks there across 2020 and 2021.

The pattern of Auger-Aliassime’s tenure in the Top 10—multiple returns to the group rather than a single continuous stretch—highlights his resilience and consistency at the highest level. As Roland Garros nears, the 100-week marker is a reminder of his standing on the ATP Tour and of the depth of Canadian men’s tennis in this period.

Aryna Sabalenka turns 28 and this profile assembles a number for each year of her life drawn from the milestones listed below.

1 — The No. 1 ranking, which she will hold for an 89th and 90th career week during Rome over the next two weeks.

2 — Two year-end No. 1 finishes, in 2024 and 2025. She is one of only 13 players to finish No. 1 in back-to-back years in WTA history.

3 — One of three women this century to be No. 1 every week of a calendar year, joining Serena Williams and Ashleigh Barty after doing so in 2025.

4 — Four Grand Slam titles, all on hard courts: two Australian Open trophies (2023, 2024) and two US Open crowns (2024, 2025).

5 — Five straight Top 5 year-end finishes from 2021 to 2025, the only woman to finish the last five years in a row in the Top 5.

6 — Six straight Top 10 year-end finishes when including her No. 10 in 2020; the only woman with six consecutive Top 10 year-end placings.

7 — Reached the last seven hard-court major finals in a row, a run beginning at the 2023 Australian Open; the last woman to do seven in a row on hard courts was Martina Hingis.

8 — Won her first eight Grand Slam quarterfinal matches in a row, the second woman in the Open Era to do so after Chris Evert.

9 — Reached nine finals in 2025, the most on the women’s tour that year, and won a tour-leading four titles.

10 — Owns the 10th-longest streak at No. 1 in WTA history, secured this week with her 81st consecutive week at the top.

11 — The 11th-most career weeks at No. 1 with this week being her 89th overall; 11 WTA 1000 titles, including two already this year.

12 — Surpassed 12,000 ranking points for the first time in her career last summer, reaching a career-high 12,420 after Wimbledon.

13 — Reached the quarterfinals or better at the last 13 majors she has played, a run dating to the 2022 US Open; 12 of those were semifinals or better.

14 — Reached 14 career Grand Slam semifinals and has won seven of her last eight Grand Slam semifinals.

15 — Earned more than $15 million in prize money in 2025 alone, $15,008,519, a single-season WTA record.

16 — Three 15-match winning streaks in her career have each been snapped before 16; most recently she had six match points to break the run but did not.

17 — Reached the quarterfinals or better at her last 17 tournaments in a row, a streak beginning last February.

18 — Won 18 consecutive sets at the US Open at one point between her third-round match in 2024 and the 2025 semifinals; the only sets she lost in those two events were to Ekaterina Alexandrova and Jessica Pegula.

19 — Won 19 tie-breaks in a row during the 2025 season, the Open Era record for most consecutive tie-breaks won by a woman.

20 — Won her last 20 Grand Slam tie-breaks in a row, the Open Era record for any player at Grand Slams, surpassing Novak Djokovic’s 19.

21 — Her last straight-set defeat at a major came 21 majors ago at the 2020 US Open to Victoria Azarenka, 6-1, 6-3.

22 — Posted a 22-3 overall tie-break record in 2025, the most tie-break wins by a woman in a single season in the Open Era.

23 — Broke into the Top 5 at age 23 after winning her first Madrid title in 2021, defeating Barty in the final.

24 — Has 24 career titles, 21 on hard courts and three on the clay of Madrid (2021, 2023, 2025).

25 — Reached No. 1 for the first time at age 25 after her run to the 2023 US Open final; won 25 consecutive sets at the Australian Open from 2023 to 2025.

26 — Owns a 26-2 record this year; both losses were narrow, including a match where she led Elena Rybakina 3-0 in the third set of the Australian Open final and a match where she had six match points against Hailey Baptiste in Madrid.

27 — Spent her full 27th year ranked No. 1, all 365 days from May 5, 2025 to May 4, 2026.