If it seems that the 2025 horizon professional tennis The year started pretty much immediately right after 2024 ended, because that’s exactly what happens in a sport where the offseason really doesn’t leave much time for players to be “off.”
In fact, for tennis, 2025 started when the calendar still showed 2024.
“I obviously wish the offseason was longer, 100%,” said Coco Gauff, 2023 US Open championwho began his “year” by helping the American team win the United Cup title in Sydney, more than a week after the start of that competition on December 27. “But that’s how it is. »
When the Australian Open Starting Sunday morning in Melbourne (Saturday evening EST), players will have been getting up to speed by participating in various events which followed a longer period of training and gym work for some than others.
“I wouldn’t even say there’s an offseason anymore,” said 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist Denis Shapovalov. “The season is endless.”
For the record, last season officially ended for good on December 22, when Brazilian João Fonseca won the ATP Next Gen Finals in Saudi Arabia. He was back on court later in December for the Challenger Tour stop in Canberra, Australia – which he also won.
The golf season is similar, running essentially uninterrupted without the multiple months off offered by team sports.
“We have been fighting for a longer offseason for a long time. To be healthy… you need at least a two-month offseason. So it would be nice to finish a little bit early,” said Conchita Martinez, a former player who won the Wimbledon championship in 1994 and is now the Russian teenager’s coach. Mirra Andreeva.
“For the health of the circuit, for the health of the players,” Martinez said, “maybe (the season) should be a little shorter.”
This is certainly not a new concern.
However, nothing seems to have changed. On the contrary, the problem is becoming more and more pronounced.
And to come back to Martinez’s point, the opening week of this season included two singles finals in which one player stopped playing – Naomi Osaka in Auckland, New Zealand, and Reilly Opelka in Brisbane, Australia – due to an injury problem (it’s also likely they wanted to make sure they didn’t push yourself too hard with the first Grand Slam of the year on the horizon).
That’s why, as much as possible, athletes try to find some free time before preparing to face what awaits them.
“I spent a week and a half without touching the tennis racket. I just threw it in my room. I didn’t want to see him again”, four-time major champion Carlos Alcaraz joked. “It was really helpful to disconnect for a bit.”
They say they view the time between seasons, however brief, as an opportunity to combine rest and relaxation (the Maldives is a popular vacation spot, as a glance at players’ social media makes clear), as well as training and preparation. , with the aim of trying to improve in one way or another.
“You take a little break. But you have to get back on the court and in the gym immediately to prepare for Australia,” said Jasmine Paolini, a finalist at the French Open and Wimbledon in 2024. “As soon as you can, you have to train, but it There’s not a lot of time, so you have to figure out how to plan things. »
Ben Shelton, a big server who was a quarterfinalist at the Australian Open and U.S. Open two years ago, put in the time for his return match this offseason. He represented the United States at the Davis Cup in Spain in late November, then played an exhibition match at Madison Square Garden in early December, before traveling to his new home, Orlando, Florida, to prepare for January.
Unlike many players, he skipped any competition in the first week of 2025, choosing instead to compete in an event in Auckland this week before heading to Melbourne.
The mindset, Shelton explains, boils down to, “Oh, I have six weeks off; I’m not really “fight tough” right now. »
Some fans wonder why he and others choose to participate in exhibitions, but players say they don’t have the same impact as a daily tournament, or even a Slam event every other day. It’s hard to argue with someone who also chooses to earn a little extra money.
And players argue that no matter how much they may turn off in November or December, part of the problem is that there is not much chance of doing that in other months.
“Ideally we would have a little more time. It’s such a short turnaround… after such a long season. There aren’t enough days to recover,” said Alexei Popyrin, an Australian who surprised Novak Djokovic at last year’s US Open. “Taking time to let your body rest can hinder preparation , but ultimately you need your body to be ready The schedule is so busy throughout the year.
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AP Sports Writer Brian Mahoney in New York contributed to this report.
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis editor since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
