It’s been a season of injuries so far on clay, with numerous top pros pulling out of the next couple of tournaments. Even the very best in the world, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner announced last week that they would not be taking part in the Rome Open. Sinner even sounded unsure about his French Open campaign.
Amidst these concerns, Alexander Zverev has made bold statements regarding the situation, blaming the tight schedule of tournaments and no recovery time. He said players look to shorten their seasons even when they love to play tennis and compete because these conditions are not ideal for their bodies.
Zverev himself suffered an extremely serious ankle injury in 2022 and made an unbelievable comeback last year, surprising many who thought it was career-ending. He is now firmly back in the top ten, which adds more weight and credibility to his statement.
Alexander Zverev (Via Imago)
I've been on the Tour for 10 years, the conversation has always been about how to shorten the season. It's not because we don't want to play tennis, we love tennis, but it's to have time to prepare our body for matches and to have time to heal our body. We benefit from a rest and preparation period of only 4 weeks, we are the only sport in this situation.Alexander Zverev during media day in Rome
He rightly points out that tennis is maybe one of the only sports where there is always a tournament in play, with the players getting almost no rest. ‘Off-season’ for tennis players is a mere 4-5 weeks at the end of the year, during which players can’t even afford to rest their bodies as tournaments at the beginning of the next season call for continuous training.
Many players have come out and shared similar opinions, and if enough do so, things may change. However, there are players ranked much lower than the top 100, who depend on these tournaments that happen every week for their livelihood, putting their bodies on the line. It remains a situation where neither side is right and discussions to bring about a solution are probably set into motion now.
ATP faces backlash as they announce new doubles format
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) recently found themselves in the line of fire of netizens when they announced the changes they would be implementing, starting in Madrid, for the double format of the tour.
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Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden at the doubles Australian Open final (Image via Australian Open/X)The changes that were tried this week in Madrid allow more singles players to use their singles rankings to secure spots in doubles draws. The new format also dictates shorter time intervals between points and games, with it completely disallowing a break after the first game of each set. It also allows fans to move around when points are in play.
Unfortunately, the ATP saying they will make the doubles schedule tighter did not bode well with fans, as all the new rules seem to neglect what is best for the players completely. They took to the comments section of the posts announcing the changes under trial, completely bashing the decisions made by the ATP.
