Alex de Minaur Takes Aim At Tennis Schedule After Shocking Roland Garros Exit
NewsFriday, 30 May 2025 at 13:13
Alex de Minaur was disappointed after his second-round loss at the Roland Garros this year, and he vented his frustration about the current tennis schedule after his exit.
De Minaur has significantly improved his level on the clay courts in recent years, which is why he entered this year's Roland Garros as one of the possible dark horses. At the end of the day, he was the ninth seed at the event, so he was among the broader group of favorites regardless.
However, his tournament ended already in the second round. The Australian took on Alexander Bublik, who is a very tricky opponent to face, especially early on, but it seemed that De Minaur had the match under control.
The ninth seed won the first two sets 6-2, 6-2, and he was easily cruising towards a third-round spot. But then, suddenly, Bublik staged an impressive comeback to win the match 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.
De Minaur ran out of steam as the match went on, and he possibly identified a reason behind that after his match. The 26-year-old spoke about how challenging the tennis schedule is right now.
Casper Ruud recently spoke about players being forced to play injured not to miss out on certain bonuses, and De Minaur is another player not in favor of the current system, thinking it forces players to play too much.
De Minaur said that after ending the season at the Davis Cup, he basically starts his pre-season preparations a couple of days later, which is not healthy, as it doesn't give players enough time to rest.
"No one's got a solution. But the solution is simple: You shorten the schedule, right? What's not normal is that for the last three, four years I've had two days off after the Davis Cup and I've gone straight into preseason, straight into the new season again."
"Once you start, you don't finish until November 24th. So it's never-ending. The way it's structured ... I had to deal with that. I'm still dealing with that right now."
Obviously, De Minaur also has a solution, and that's to shorten the current calendar. He thinks that the careers of the current generation of players could be at risk, considering how challenging it is to keep up with the current schedule, both physically and mentally.
"The solution is you shorten [the tour], because what's going to happen is players' careers are going to get shorter and shorter because they're just going to burn out mentally. There's just too much tennis."
Players have been voicing similar opinions to that of De Minaur for quite some time now, but the ATP and the WTA have yet to react. It's obvious that for the financial purposes, it's the best to have as many tournaments as possible, but there is also the tradeoff of not having the best competing because of injuries.
Luckily for De Minaur, he can find one positive in his early loss at Roland Garros. He will now have a couple of weeks to rest before kicking off his grass-court season. He will be among the dark horses at Wimbledon once again.
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