LTA CEO sounds alarm over tennis schedule after nine Queen’s Club withdrawals
Growing discontent is festering among tennis players over the gruelling schedule they have to endure.
Remarkably, the tennis season can start at the end of December, before culminating in mid to late November. That gives the sport’s biggest stars very little time to rest and recover for the following campaign.
To make matters worse, the vast majority of Masters 1000 events are now spread over the best part of a fortnight, rather than the more traditional week.
On the men’s tour, only the Monte Carlo Masters takes place over seven days, whereas the rest stretch into a second week as they are more profitable.
And with tennis getting increasingly physical, concerns are being raised that more players are getting injured as a result. Take Queen’s Club, for example.
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Before the men’s tournament got underway this week, Valentin Vacherot, Jack Draper, Lorenzo Musetti, Rafael Jodar, Carlos Alcaraz, and Holger Rune all pulled out due to injury.
Luciano Darderi reportedly had tonsil surgery and according to LTA CEO Scott Lloyd, nine players withdrew before the competition began.
Lloyd pointed out that this event is a hugely popular one with players but hinted that the schedule may need to be looked at off the back of all these injuries.
He said on the BBC’s coverage of Queen’s, “On the really elite end of the game, this week we had a 32-man draw, and there were nine withdrawals out of 25.
“It is not like players don’t want to play here. This has been the ATP 500 event of the year for three out of the last four years.
“They want to play here; the players vote for that award. So to have nine players out of 25 withdraw, you’ve got to look at it.”
Alcaraz hasn’t played on the ATP Tour since withdrawing from the Barcelona Open in mid-April. The 23-year-old missed the majority of the clay-court swing and won’t be at Wimbledon, either.
Rune has been recovering from an Achilles tear, Draper has been struggling with a knee problem, and Musetti has been waylaid by a quad issue. As Scott says, the schedule really needs to be looked at and fast.
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