09/16/2026
The 2026 U.S. Open is officially in the books, and two weeks of elite tennis showed just how much workload can accumulate over the course of a tournament.
Alexander Zverev captured the menās title with a four-set win over Ben Shelton, 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2. Elena Rybakina won the womenās championship by defeating two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, ending Sabalenkaās 19-match U.S. Open winning streak.
But the final is only the last piece of the workload. By the end of the tournament, players had competed in 254 singles matches spanning 781 sets. One match lasted 5 hours and 13 minutes, and the menās draw alone featured 28 five-set matches.
That is why post-tournament recovery should not begin and end with whatever hurts the most.
Research examining consecutive days of prolonged tennis found that muscle soreness and fatigue increased as match play accumulated, while measures including sprinting, jumping and serve accuracy declined. In other words, repeated competition can leave effects throughout the body even when there is no single obvious injury demanding attention.
For athletes, the takeaway is simple: think about the total workload. Legs, hips, trunk, shoulders, sleep, fatigue and overall readiness can all be part of the recovery picture.
At Synergy Acupuncture, we take the same approach. Rather than simply chasing the loudest sore spot, we look at what your body has been asked to do across practices, games, matches and tournaments, then build recovery around the bigger picture.
Finished your season, tournament or a particularly demanding stretch of competition? That is a good time to assess how your body is actually recovering before jumping straight back into full training.
