[SlowToady]

Or for another sports analogy, I imagine it being somewhat like cycling. You don't ride in every single event, and you don't try to dominate every single event. You strategically ride and dominate the events that are of greatest importance (whether by points or historical significance I suppose). For example, Lance Armstrong has won 7 Tours, but he didn't win all the stages in all the Tours. Or even most of them. He didn't ride balls to the wall every stage, every day. If he did, he surely would have won not a single Tour. Instead, he rode as hard as he had to to ensure that he stayed ahead at important times.

Back to tennis...I grew up watching both my brother and sister play tennis competitively in High School and a little bit at the college level. As near as I can tell, the serving motion is not natural for the shoulders, which leads to high rates of injury. In fact, I'd wager that most motions that occur in most professional sports run contrary to the design of the body due to their high intensity and frequency. In this sense, it makes PERFECT sense to only play as hard as you need to to win. At a professional level, it's about playing smart, not playing hard.

Why risk career ending injuries just to prove you played your heart out when you would have won either way?