Calf Strain

After 20+ years of injury free running I have recently taken up tennis again and loving it...however sudden calf tear happened yesterday during play - much to my horror....I do pilates and always stretch after running so I am supple, I am fit and not carrying too much weight....why did this happen?? (I am aged 47) Is this just bad luck? or do the 2 sports not match?  Am now on icing and strapping and will be seeing a physio next week I think....and horrified by how long I might be off running training.

Any tips or ideas?

i once heared sports that have sideways movements like tennis, squash, etc arent that good for a runner to be doing.... dont know how accurate that is

Thanks - am hoping not!! however will get physio advice and see if there is anything I can do to help with that...am still off running!

My calves/ lower legs are my weak point. I have invested in some compression socks this year and my initial impressions are good. My thoughts are that your running fitness and past tennis ability are likely to allow you stress your joints, ligaments and tendons in a way that a novice tennis player would not, because they do not have that basic fitness and ability? Maybe you went too hard too soon? You have my full sympathy with the injury; hopefully it feels worse than it is.

Because running doesn't really build strength.  With tennis you're using explosive movements and using lateral muscles...no wonder you got injured.  I would expect you used an area of your calf that hasn't been built up from running.  This is based on my experience of learning to swim front crawl, I have really strong calfs...well at least I thought I had, but front crawl has found a weakness at the top of my calfs that I have never found in running, and it's quite sore!