Maria Sharapova wasn't a fan of the tennis schedule back when she played ans she's still not a fan of it today.
The tennis schedule is a very interesting topic that gets brought up every once in a while by some tennis player, active or retired. The nature of the sport is quite tricky to begin with because players are always on the road, but even outside of that, the schedule can be quite brutal.
It's simply too long because tennis is being played all year round, and even if the top players have more agency over it than lower-ranked players, there are still mandatory events they need to attend.
They just kind of have to accept that 11 out of 12 months will be dedicated to the sport. As a former WTA player, Maria Sharapova knows everything about the schedule and the challenges that it brings.
Things haven't really changed that much compared to before and arguably it's even worse with the big-money exhibitions inserting themselves in the middle of the calendar.
"The schedule and the system is still slightly broken. There's so much going on. The season is 10 months out of the year. There's several different federations involved; the Grand Slams that are not connected to the rest of the tour. There's inequality."
It's largely a prevalnet feeling among players though everybody has a different spin on it. The grievances of Australian tennis players are well known because outside of the first month, they're never home.
If a player is from Europe or the United States, they'll have multiple weeks of tennis being played on those continents, easing some of the stress. It also isn't unique to lower-ranked players as one of the top names Carlos Alcaraz also spoke about the lenght of the calendar recently.
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