Jack Draper added his name to the growing list of tennis players bemoaning the really long tennis season, calling the tennis calendar 'mental'.
Draper proved himself to be one of the better tennis players out there at the recently concluded US Open. He played an amazing event to book a Grand Slam semi-final for the first time in his career.
However, by the time that match rolled around, Draper was quite tired, as showcased by his physical problems in the match against Jannik Sinner.
While Draper hasn’t historically been the strongest tennis player, with lots of injuries in his resume, the British player doesn’t take full blame for it. He knows he has to get better and stronger, but part of it is also the tennis calendar, which he bemoaned as challenging.
He’s not the only player to have voiced concerns about this, as plenty of players have commented on the calendar, especially recently, with rumblings that it could become even more demanding with more events, and the ATP Masters 1000 series expanding.
Speaking about the calendar to the BBC, Draper called it 'mental' because, to him, it’s pretty clear that players coming into the sport now, such as himself, won’t be able to have long careers due to the sheer amount of tennis they have to play.
"It's a mental calendar. It's my opinion that it's going to be very hard for players of my age to achieve longevity any more. If you look at how many tournaments I've played this year, it's hopefully 25, 26 for the first time."
"That's a big positive in itself - this is my first proper year on tour. It's definitely tough, but my team want the best for me, they want me to stay injury-free, to look after my body and mind."
Draper has had a very busy summer with all the events that he played, and he admitted that from the Miami Open onwards, he didn’t have any time for anything outside of playing in matches and getting ready for them.
The Miami Open was held back in March, and the season is in September now, so it’s been a long stretch. From hard courts to clay, then grass, back to clay for the Olympics, and then to hard courts again.
Now it's time for the Asian swing, which is also a big stretch with an ATP Masters 1000 event and a couple of big ATP 500 events, such as the China Open in Beijing and the Japan Open in Tokyo, where he played last year.
"Since Miami I just haven't had any time. We went straight into the clay, then straight on to the grass, straight to the Olympics, straight out to Montreal, Cincinnati, training week, US Open, here, then it's Asia, then it's indoor season."
"I look at the sort of schedule, and I know players have done it for years, but the way the ATP have changed to two weeks with the Masters and these types of things, it's giving us no time any more. There's literally no break. It's really mentally and physically challenging."
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