Are the top seeds staging a walk-out at the Shanghai Masters? Fourth-seeded Andy Roddick retired yesterday with a mysterious knee injury during his second round match against Stan Wawrinka. The 3rd and 7th seeds followed today, as Juan Martin del Potro retired with a wrist injury against Jurgen Melzer, and Ivan Ljubicic defeated Fernando Verdasco in straight sets. (And a moment of silence for Marat.)
Of course, the underlying theme this week has been the length of the ATP’s season and the toll it (supposedly?) takes on the top players. Roddick expressed his displeasure before his match – providing fodder for walk-out conspiracy theorists everywhere:
I don’t think it’s coincidental that you see, you know, Murray and Roger a little bit hurt now or Rafa missing four months in the middle of the year, maybe some odd results from Del Potro and myself last week. You know, I don’t think that’s all of one big coincidence, and I think — you know, I just hope that the short-sightedness doesn’t affect the length of careers, you know. I think in tennis you definitely want your stars around as long as possible.
Rafael Nadal chimed-in, too:
Is impossible to play 1st of January and finish 5th of December. No one sport can do it, and you can play — well, you play shorter career. Is impossible to be here playing like what I did last five years, playing a lot of matches and being all the time 100% without problems. For last five years, if you see I am No. 1 or No. 2 on matches played on court, and I was okay, I have a few problems in this five years, but not a lot, but sooner or later, finally is impossible, I think. No, I think everybody is working hard to try to change that. . .But I don’t know the solution, but that’s must — my opinion, that’s must be changed and soon.
As I type, Nadal, Tsonga Djokovic et al. have yet to complete their matches. Let’s hope a few top seeds still remain after today!
James Martin of tennis.com thinks the stars should stop bellyaching about the length of the season.
On the miraculous Abu Dhabi cure:
What’s been especially disappointing this week, in the middle of the Shanghai bitch fest, is that the players seem more clueless than ever. Take Nadal. While he said “it’s impossible to play 1st of January and finish 5th of December,” he has also announced that he’ll be competing in the Abu Dhabi exhibition at the beginning of next year before the Australian Open. (Roger Federer is also scheduled to compete there.) It’s not required that Rafa sign up for this event, though one can only guess that the folks at Abu Dhabi are offering up sizeable appearance fees that will probably go a long way in making a tired mind and body feel rejuvenated.
On the gruelling 25 week season:
On the ATP tour, the pros are supposed to play eight of the nine Masters Series events (Monte Carlo is the exception) and four 500-level events (Monte Carlo can count toward this quota) throughout the year, with only one required to be after the U.S. Open. The Top 8-ranked players are also required to show up for the year-end World Tour Finals. Add to that the Grand Slams, at two weeks each, and the Davis Cup (4 times per season for teams that reach the final) and you’ve got a maximum tournament requirement of 25 weeks. Don’t know about you, but I’d fancy a work schedule like that. And this, of course, assumes that these players are getting deep into the second week of majors and going far in Davis Cup, which only a select few actually do.
Click here to read the whole piece – there’s lots more fuel for the fire.
I still maintain that the season is too long – not for the players but for the fans. We can only stay up past our bedtimes and watch crappy live streaming for so long before it starts messing with our minds. . .
Tags: ATP, DelPotro, Nadal, Roddick, Shanghai Masters, tennis
RELATED ARTICLES ON GOTOTENNIS |
Loading ...
Check out Novak’s view on the Independent
Novak Djokovic: ‘We can’t expect just to shorten the season’
Now I start to like him a bit more (I really don’t care much about his dumb joking style).
Of course, he said so from the side of to-be-organizer as well. So, both side of the stories.
Hmmmm. . . .very interesting point re: Novak as tournament organizer. He’s definitely in a unique position.
great pic of andy, really says it all. very interesting james martin article on the length of the season. i suppose the season is what it is (for now) and it’s up to the players to really cut back their commitments whenever possible and spend less time complaining. it is a long season for the fans, but then again we could step away and not be obsessed with everything that is happening in the tennis world. trust me, i try, but it’s very hard, because it’s so much fun to keep up! damn you ff for doing such a good job!
it is disturbing that there are so many injuries among the top players. not good for the players and really sucks for the fans who pay money to see them in action. oh marat- tomas was injured! he may not even win the next match. you should have made him run like crazy! i love marat but it is hard to see how he’s a little slower now and can’t maintain a high level of play. still very HOT!
Last year, Nadal started with the complaints about the season being too long, about the hard court damaging his knees and how he would not be able to play other sports when he retires… He should play tennis and concentrate on that sport while he still can.
Most of the articles about the season don’t reflect on things like the generous amount of travel required for the pro-tennis player, planes, trains and automobiles; jet lag and adjusting to things like food in a foreign country; then there is practice time and training. The time and energy invested is far more than just looking at the match time.
Excellent points patzin! And also, it is ridiculous how congested the clay court season is! So many tournaments crammed back-to-back to make room for more hard court tournaments! And what about the grass court “season”? It’s outrageously short!
People need to realize that this isn’t about any ONE player. It is about all of the players and it’s about the future of our sport!
I found it interesting how upset Rafa and Roger were when the ATP downgraded Hamburg and Monte Carlo. I guess they don’t mind all the clay court tournaments because they’re in Europe and the clay is easier on the body. But I agree that taken as a whole, there are way too many clay court (and hard court) events and too few on grass.
But seeing the legal fall out of the Hamburg decision (people were afraid the proceedings would bankrupt the ATP) it seems like it’s next to impossible to make real changes to the calendar. Too many interests involved.
I feel like it’s going to be this way forever.
I’m really tired of this whining about the season. Ok, maybe they have a point…but what’s the use of complaining about it in public? It’s not like fans & media have any power on ATP officials unlike other sports like soccer. But I guess it gives us something juicy to talk about.
Safin added his voice…according to him, he complained about the schedule way back in ‘04 & Roddick (among others) told him to shut up. So he questions why they complain now, & not when they were ambitious 21 yr olds going after big $$$. Safin doesn’t mince is words!
freakyfrites, you can check the story in yahoo sports – eurosports, tennis. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post a link?
Not directly related to anything, but i thought this was amusing, as quoted by Jerry Crowe of LA Times.
“Comedian Stephen Colbert, in an interview with two-time U.S. Open quarterfinalist James Blake: ‘Why do people continue to play tennis while Roger Federer is still alive?’
Blake: ‘We’re wishful thinkers?’ . . .”
THAT, in a nutshell, is James Blake’s mentality. Seriously.
MarK, your avatar looks just like you, don’t you think?
Thanks for the quote! I wonder when Colbert interviewed Blake – I’ll have to research.
I was really impressed with Blake’s play against Nadal today (watched on tape) especially all the S&V action. Maybe this new coach knows what he’s doing. . .I’ll be watching him at the Australian.
My avatar is definitely the cutest and i am very proud of it!
sorry if this is a duplicate, but i don’t see my post. i found the blake-colbert vid. kind of wish jb had loosed up more, but stephen was funny and it was all in good fun. roddick would have had more of a ball!
http://www.videowired.com/watch/?id=1632049150
great quote pick up! i would love to see the colbert interview with blake. i hope someone finds it. it’s always fun when tennis makes it into mainstream media. i love the daily show and colbert report, so it was fun when they covered some of the USO drama!
This isn’t about all players this is about a minority of highly paid Prima donnas. There are over 1500 players on the atp computer. The guy that is at 200 earned $44,000 so far this year. There are 1300+ men ranked lower than him. Shortening the season isn’t going to help them any and they are the bulk of the tour.
I agree with that Martin guy if the season is shortened all we’ll find is the complainers will go out and play very lucrative exhibition matches. I guarantee that if the ATP offered to shorten the tour with the stipulation that they cannot play exhibition matches there would be no more talk of shortening the tour.
If the players want to help themselves reduce injury why aren’t they suggesting changing surfaces? Or the standardisation of hard court surfaces etc.
This the djokovic article that was mentioned further up thread, he seems to be much more mature than the rest of the complainers.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/novak-djokovic-we-cant-expect-just-to-shorten-the-season-1802092.html