Tennis elbow is one of the most common injuries afflicting the recreational tennis player. The goal of this study was to determine if changes in racquet composition and manufacturing, including oversized, composite, wide-body and long body rackets have an effect on the incidence of tennis elbow as compared with older, metal and wood racquets. Eighty-one entrants into the Men´s National 40´s Tennis Tournament (Monroeville, PA, USA) were surveyed for history of tennis elbow and racquet usage. Their mean age was 41.7±2.2 years. Mean years of playing were 26.4±6.6. They played a mean of 3.8±1.8 hours of singles per week, and 1.3±1.6 hours of doubles per week. Mean USTA ranking was 5.6±0.7. Thirty-one of the players had never developed tennis elbow, 17 had developed it more than 10 years ago, when wide body racquets were introduced, and 33 developed it in the past 10 years. The data suggest that the newer, stiffer composite racquets may increase the rate of developing tennis elbow. Players who were treated by a tennis professional rather than a health care professional had a significantly increased risk of repeated episodes (p=0.02). Other correlations found included age, number of years playing, height, and grip size.
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