The debate around the hectic nature of the tennis schedule has reared its ugly head at the US Open, with Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka leading the charge.
Alcaraz, who is playing in his first tournament for four and a half months at the US Open, has revealed his intentions to limit the amount of events he plays going forward.
“I want to have the breaks that I need to prepare the tournaments, to have the time to prepare the tournaments, to miss the tennis, to miss the tour, to miss you guys,” said the Spaniard. “I think that’s really important.”
Sabalenka agreed and even suggested tennis should limit the amount of mandatory tournaments players are expected to play. At present, players are required to play all nine of the Masters events, as well as three 500 tournaments of their choosing.
“I would love to see changes to the calendar and eliminate the mandatory events to let the players decide what’s best for their health,” said the world No 1.
“It’s been incredibly intense. Especially if you play at the level Carlos plays, which is basically very consistent, it’s very hard on the body.
“If they’re not going to reduce it, we’ll have to sacrifice points, ranking position, whatever it takes, to protect our bodies. I think it would be really helpful for the WTA and ATP to relax the calendar a bit for us in order to truly support our health.”
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Roger Rasheed, who coached the likes of Lleyton Hewitt and Gael Monfils, has been outspoken about the players’ recent criticisms of the schedule.
In a conversation with Mark Petchey on X, Rasheed shared his bemusement at players complaining about playing too much.
“The too many matches is the one for me, only a very small minority could claim that and if you are playing lots, well you’re obviously having a bloody good year – wasn’t that the initial goal?” he said.
In a later post, Rasheed came up with a potential solution for the top players on the ATP and WTA Tours.
“With players complaining about the schedule and the calendar, I would suggest that they come up with and present a mock calendar which they all believe works from top to bottom,” he said.
The Australian continued: “One that delivers on all the metrics that allow the sport to thrive on all fronts,” he continued. [It] would be interesting to see.”
At present, there has been no indication that the powers that be are going to limit the amount of tournaments players are required to play.
However, if Alcaraz does limit his schedule, the other top players on the Tour will very likely follow suit.
That could cause a revolution of sorts that will likely back both the ATP and WTA Tours into a corner. It will be very interesting to see what happens from this point onwards.
