(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
It's one of the hot tennis topics of the moment. But then it always tends to be one of the hot tennis topics around this time each year.
Is the ATP tour too demanding for the players?
This year, though, things were meant to be different.
The 2007 U.S. Open saw the official launch by the A.T.P. of a new approach to the men’s tour that was designed to create a healthier schedule for players and a more attractive package for sponsors and broadcast partners.
According to the then executive chairman of the A.T.P., Etienne de Villiers, “We need to have the best players, playing in the best stadia, in the best markets at the right time. Our players, fans, tournaments, and sponsors deserve a world class tour and that is what we will be giving them in 2009.”
What he presented was a re-branding of the elite tournaments into an easy-to-identify schedule that described the tour in terms of ranking points. It also aimed to ensure that the best performers entered the top tournaments.
In theory, the benefits for the players would be a more evenly spread through the season, and bigger prizes for those who fulfilled their commitments. The down side was that those who skipped mandatory events could face suspension.
The 2009 Package
So from 2009, the world’s top 30 players have been expected to compete in 18 tournaments each year, to include the four Grand Slams, eight of the nine Masters 1000s, and four 500s.
Monte Carlo became an optional ninth Masters or a substitute 500. Shanghai replaced Hamburg, and Madrid changed from an autumn indoor event to a late spring clay event.
Add in some non-mandatory events—the Davis Cup up to four times a year and the November finale for the top eight players—and the year has filled up nicely for the sponsors, the fans, and the media.
But this is proving to be a workload that many players view as unsustainable. Rafael Nadal has gone so far as to say that it could force players into early retirement.
Nadal has had more reason than most to be worried. He heads a list of casualties that have peppered the season.
In early spring, Roger Federer struggled with a back injury sustained during the autumn of 2008. By May, Nadal’s knees were causing him increasing difficulty, followed by similar problems for Gilles Simon and Fernando Verdasco.
Wimbledon was without Nadal and Gael Monfils. July and August saw problems for Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, and Federer. That latter pair did not even attempt the trip to the autumn Asian swing, where yet more players succumbed to muscle pulls and tendinitis: Juan Martin Del Potro, Stanislas Wawrinka, and Tommy Haas.
Little wonder, then, that the chorus of dissatisfaction has begun again.
Nadal: “It's impossible to be here playing like I did the last five years, playing a lot of matches and being all the time 100 percent without problems.''
Roddick: “We're finished in November and have to be pretty much Grand Slam-ready by fourth January year after year after year after year. And the people who are playing the most, they get added two weeks [for the Masters Final].”
The soon-to-retire Marat Safin: “Everybody is falling apart, getting injured, and complaining the season is long. Should it really take five years to realise that something is wrong?"
Even former champion Andre Agassi has piled into the debate: “I’d like to see people come to the table and work out a schedule that suits everyone. I always thought it’s best to give the players a schedule that enables them to be at their best.”
It’s hardly a coincidence that, at around this point in the season, the press and the bloggers also begin to have a field day.
The elite players ply their trade for give or take 30 weeks of the year. They earn big bucks both in prize money and sponsorship. They are doing something they love. They are pampered by their hosts and adored by their fans. There are worse ways to earn a crust.
It’s not long after the initial media grumblings that another line of argument begins. What about the days when….? What about, for example, the days of perhaps the greatest player of the Open era, Rod Laver?
That Was Then, But This is Now
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