Stefanos Tsitsipas added his name to the list of players who are against extended tournaments, blaming them for frequent injuries.
Only recently, a decision was made to extend tournaments so ATP Masters 1000 events like the Madrid Open and Italian Open could last longer than one week. They were traditionally one-week events played back-to-back but are now both extended to two weeks, and there aren't many tennis players who like it.
Players like Andy Murray and Andrey Rublev publicly opposed it, and Tsitsipas isn't in favor of it either. The idea was that a day in between matches gives athletes time to recover, and while that might be true, it also increases the total number of days that they are playing tennis.
Iga Swiatek recently explained that it's not really a free day because she still has to be on the court practicing to keep the rhythm. Now, instead of five days of tennis, players get 10 days of tennis. Those days add up to an already long schedule, and it's just problematic, as the Greek player explained.
"I've spoken about the fact that the schedule has a big toll on our bodies. It starts from the mental side, and it follows to the physical side. The extension of the days in the Masters 1000s I think plays a massive role and contributes a lot to the fact that these players are getting injured. It was perhaps already a lot the way it was before with the seven-day events."
The players don't like the extended tournaments, and the initial decision to prolong them was apparently also made without consulting the players too much, so it's not a good look for the ATP.
"Adding more days to that, well, you got to be some type of superhero to be consistent back to back 10 days in each event getting to the very end of it. It's not a very easy thing to do. Some people need to try it first to get an understanding and how it is to pull that off. Then they should make decisions based on that."
0 Comments