Roddick says ATP Tour calender is too long..Nadal agrees.
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Came in the daily e-mail I get w/ all the tennis news from around the tour..
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Andy Roddick has made an impassioned plea for the leadership of the ATP World Tour, be it the executives such as Adam Helfant or the Players Council’s leading triumvirate of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, to finally the address the punishing length of the tournament calendar...and after pulling out of the Shanghai Masters Tournament Roddick is speaking a bit louder..
Roddick is insistent the rank and file of the playing fraternity feel the same as he does; that the tour is getting longer rather than shorter with each year that passes and therefore causing a growing number of injuries. And his language on the subject was so strong that the dreaded word ‘strike’ even entered his thinking.
“That is the last thing that anyone wants to do but you get pushed against a wall,” said the American who is this week contesting the Shanghai Masters 1000. “I don’t think any of us wants to do that, because even more so than feeling a responsibility to the powers that be in tennis, we feel a responsibility to the fans and we don’t want to alienate them. I think that’s why we’ve put up with it as long as we have.”
Roddick is mindful that the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is working hard to make their calendar more player friendly. The ladies can take it easy from November 2 onwards, giving them almost two months to rest before the new campaign starts in Australia in January. But the men will go on for a further three weeks, with the Davis Cup final between Spain and the Czech Republic beyond that in December.
He continued “"It's ridiculous that you have a professional sport that doesn't have a legitimate off-season to rest, get healthy, and then train. I just feel sooner or later that common sense has to prevail.
"I can tell you that six weeks is simply not enough time to recover from the excesses of a season. We played almost 11 months, we have a solid block of mandated events, we have to play four of the 500 [the number of ranking points on offer] tournaments, the demands are getting harder.
“Heck, I’d just like a couple of weeks in a year when I could overdose on burritos, but I have to watch what I do probably more closely than most players, I train like a dog and when I’m out there, I kill myself to win.”
Your thoughts? He's not alone, Rafael Nadal also agrees,
"It's impossible to play from January 1 to December 5, no sport can do it," said Nadal, who will be part of Spain’s Davis Cup team when the final is played in Barcelona in December. "I don't know what the solution is, but it must be changed and soon."
Thoughts?
*UPDATE 10/14*
Juan Martin Del Potro has withdrawn from the Shanghai Open citing tendinitis in his right wrist as the reason for his withdrawl from the tournament.
"I'm a little sorry," Del Potro said. "It's a big tournament here in Shanghai, very important for me. But if I want to have a good finish this season, I have to recover, go home to be in good shape for the last tournaments."
In addition, 15th seed Tommy Haas withdrew after dropping the first set to Rainer Schuettler 6-4, citing a right shoulder injury as his reason for withdrawl.
Could these two withdrawls make the ATP see that the players do need an extrened off season?????
Thoughts..
*UPDATE 10/15*
Gael Monfils and Stanislas Wawrinka have withdrawn from the China Open, making them the 6th and 7th casualties to drop from the ATP 1000 level tournament...
Is the ATP taking heed to this that 6 of the 7 players to drop out of the tournament are in the ATP top 20? (Wawrinka cuts it close at #22)
What's on your mind? Post a comment below.
Posted by Neemesh Chheda on 10/13/2009 5:20:44 PM
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