ATP ace urges rethinking of tennis calendar to stop ‘pushing’ players to exhaustion
Emil Ruusuvouri has called on the ATP to consider changing the tennis calendar to make players feel “pressured” into playing too many tournaments.
Tennis scheduling is a hot topic right now for both men and women. Key figures from the WTA, including world number one Iga Swiatek and Paula Badosa, spoke against the plan to increase the number of compulsory tournaments in which they must participate per year.
Meanwhile, ATP stars have pleaded for a change in ball policy with Carlos Alcaraz and Daniel Medvedev among other things, changing ball manufacturers for almost every tournament causes too many injuries.
Ruusuvouri says he’s concerned about both, and points out that players are often forced to compete in tournaments when they should be resting, and that the ever-changing conditions put extra strain on their bodies when they do.
“The amount of travel and playing time with a ranking like mine is how this sport works,” he told Punto de Break.
“Only Novak Djokovic can play ten tournaments a year and be number one. For the rest of us, things aren’t so simple.
“You have to play a lot because there are a lot of results that count, 19. The movements, the balls, all that influences you.
“Everyone says they’d like to play less, but we end up playing almost every week. This is what we have to do, this is what the circuit pushes us to do.
“What I can guarantee you 100% is that it doesn’t help that conditions are constantly changing.
“I also have to review my schedule with the team, establish a schedule in which I can play two weeks with the same ball, because if you change every week you are taking too many risks.”
Why is the tennis calendar so difficult to set?
Tennis players find the Tours so exhausting, mainly because it is a global sport. There are certain times of the year, such as the start of the season in Australia, when tournaments are usually localized, but they are rare.
Generally speaking, tournaments are spread across different countries and require a lot of travel to move from one to another, and the more tournaments players participate in, the more likely they are to build their rankings.
It’s hard to see how this could change, but what may happen, and what players are asking for, are changes aimed at minimizing disruption to players.
Reducing the number of ball changes from tournament to tournament would be one way to do this, as would looking for ways to ensure that players don’t drop down the rankings if they miss tournaments to get enough rest.
However, given that tennis decisions have been primarily driven by commercial reasons in the modern era, few expect real, tangible change in the near future.
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