Slow down | A schedule that hurts players

Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Andy Murray, Arthur Cazaux, Stan Wawrinka, Laslo Djere, Jiri Lehecka, Jessica Pegula, Karolína Plíšková and Karolína Muchová all missed the important Rome tournament in May due to injuries. And this massacre is on the way to becoming normality.

Withdrawals, withdrawals, mid-match calls to massage therapists and long-term injuries have become commonplace on both the ATP and WTA circuits.

There are 69 tournaments listed on the 2024 ATP calendar and 59 on the WTA circuit. An average, therefore, staggering when we consider that the calendar extends over approximately 45 to 47 weeks.

Could this overload alone explain the numerous injuries?

“From the players’ perspective, the answer is yes,” said Sylvain Bruneau, former coach and head of women’s tennis at Tennis Canada.

“The match schedule, the calendar and the obligatory tournaments give rise to somewhat exceptional situations, like we had in Madrid. » Here, Bruneau refers to Félix Auger-Aliassime’s journey to the final of the Spanish tournament, when three of his opponents had withdrawn.

The quantity of tournaments, the changes of surfaces and balls, and above all the physical violence of high-level sport are the main elements that can explain why we have reached this point today.

Especially for high ranking players, who play three to six matches every week. “The ATP and the WTA want to protect their best players, but we must review how we make the calendar and how we plan for rest periods which are far too short at the end of the year. »

Players are complaining more and more about the hectic pace imposed by the calendar and the professional circuits. The coaches too. And the observers too, because it spoils part of the spectacle and the excitement when the main stars are absent to treat their injuries.

“I think it is possible to review the calendar. But do I think this will happen in the short term? I think not,” adds Bruneau.

The wisdom of youth

In an interview given to The Press last December. Auger-Aliassime admitted that injuries, volume and lack of time to rest could explain his difficult 2023 season.

“Next time, we want to manage this phase better, to take the time it takes to get back on the court when I feel at a very good level, not just physical, but playing. We don’t want to repeat matches like at Roland-Garros where I was really injured and in bad shape. Or Wimbledon when I ended up having knee pain during the match,” he said at the time.

Then, Sinner, to explain his withdrawal from the Rome tournament, mentioned the long-term consequences that playing injured simply to show up in a tournament he loves could have.

“I greatly salute Jannik Sinner,” said Bruneau.

We are therefore in this era where, precisely, the young guns of the circuit are ready to sacrifice tournaments, points in the ranking and a possible fee to better recover.

Which, for some, could also seem like a luxury that others cannot afford, as the emeritus coach rightly recalled: “Players who do not have the scholarships and Jannik Sinner’s sponsors also have the pressure of having to play regularly to earn their living. »

More difficult than we think

Most fans maintain the idea that the life of a professional tennis player is all red carpets, charter flights, caviar and champagne. However, we must set the facts straight.

No one is to be pitied. These athletes are living the dream of many fans.

The fact remains that their task definition is much more complex than one might believe.

For the top seeds, each tournament is a jungle, a circus. Having just arrived from another tournament, another continent or another time zone, a player must go to the stadium to promote the tournament, meet the organizers, appear at a press conference, travel to do interviews with broadcasters, meet the written press, participate in promotional activities, sign balls and rackets for a good cause and shoot a few clips for sponsors or the person responsible for the tournament’s social networks.

And this, from its first day. Through it all, the athlete didn’t eat, didn’t train, didn’t hit a ball, didn’t get any treatment, and didn’t take any naps. The next day he does it again. And this continues every day until he is eliminated. Then he starts again a few days later in another tournament, on another continent and in another time zone.

Athletes are called upon from all sides, all the time. That too is tiring, swears Bruneau.

“I remember with Bianca [Andreescu], and this is the reality of the other players, we were in Dubai for a training camp, and she had little time to do what she had to do on and off the field, and here I am talking activation, treatments and physio. And she always had two or three things to do for a sponsor, a cause. They are constantly in demand. It’s a crazy pace. It’s very hard. You eventually adapt and get used to it all, but it’s extremely demanding. »

Bruneau has participated in two Grand Slam tournament finals. With Eugenie Bouchard at Wimbledon in 2014, then with Andreescu at the US Open in 2019.

Part of his memory is all the distractions surrounding the players’ participation in these two big matches. “I felt discouraged,” he recalls, laughing a little. I said to myself: but how do you prepare? All the demands they had… It comes with playing a Grand Slam final. »

He remembers returning to the hotel with Andreescu around 9 p.m., the day before the most important match of his life, because the demand was so high. Match which she ultimately won. “It was one thing after another. »

But this is the new reality in which the best athletes in the world must live. For better and for worse.