The Season That Never Ends: Perpetual Tennis Leading to Players’ Early Demise
The ultimate year-end showdown of the best eight male tennis players in the world starts Sunday with the Masters Cup in Shanghai—make that the best players ranked two through nine. World No. 1 Rafael Nadal pulled out due to injury and the need to rest before Spain travels to Argentina for the Davis Cup final at the end of the month.
Has anybody in America save for the hardest of the hardcore tennis fans noticed? Not likely.
And why is that? In part, it has to be that the ATP season is much, much too long, stretching ten months of the year, from early January when the pre-Australian Open events kick off, to the Masters Cup every mid-November. If your team reaches the final of Davis Cup, you’ll play right up to December. Even baseball and hockey have longer off seasons.
Nadal, who was near perfect on clay and then was perfect on grass at the first half of the year, went on to win the Olympics before dragging to a semi-final appearance at the U.S. Open and then retiring during a match last week in Paris. His record for the season is 82-11, and after the Davis Cup, he’ll have played two more matches, to put him at 95 on-court appearances in 2008.
Compare his year to that of Cole Hamels, ace of the Philadelphia Phillies who was the World Series MVP. He made only 33 starts, winning 14 and losing 10. He played about third as many days as Nadal did. Baseball clubs know that they must rest their arms, and not overwork their young talent or the potential will be lost to early injury. Tennis doesn’t seem to realize this.
Is it any wonder that major league baseball pitchers stretch well into their thirties, sometimes even forties (look at the Phillies’ Jamie Moyer, 45 and still going) while tennis players are considered past their primes in the late twenties? These never-ending tennis seasons grind the players down to nothing by the end of the year.
Look at the stars who’ve slipped away young. Borg retired at 24, disappearing after winning eleven Grand Slams. Pete Sampras walked away from the game at the age of 31 after winning the U.S. Open upon a few down years where his ranking dropped. Agassi limped off at the ancient age of 36 with a back injury so bad he could hardly stand up straight. Earlier this year Federer caught mono and his game slipped just a little, and recently he pulled out of the Paris Masters tournament with a back injury. Andy Roddick started the year strong but faltered after a shoulder injury in the spring.
Men’s tennis showed that it can capture the sports worlds’ imagination with the artistry and fire with matches like the Wimbledon final between Nadal and Federer. But the players need rest, recuperation and time to produce such results.
No one has shown more how their games can benefit from rest than the Williams sisters. Oft-criticized for playing light schedules and skipping out of all but the biggest tournaments, they are late twenties and still going strong, with current expectations for them to keep going.
In comparison, Justine Henin, the unquestionable number one, retired suddenly only weeks before the French Open this year — a tournament she practically owned — citing burnout. Kim Clisters, another recent champion, is down with injuries. And Martina Hingis, the once unbeatable teen, retired from the game for her second time. Maria Sharapova missed the U.S. Open with an injury.
Give the players and break and tennis in the big events will be better. And even the fans might appreciate it, as less can sometimes be more.
Nov 8th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Thank you for your well-written commentary about the deleterious effects of a long competitive tennis season. A casual observer might think that the ATP schedule is reasonable because every competitor seems to have equal demands on their time and energy. But the reality is that this schedule punishes the most talented–the super stars of tennis. Generally, the top seeded players play a significantly greater number of matches, and the physical and mental toll paid by them accelerates as they progress in a given tournament. By the conclusion of the ATP calendar year, it takes an amazing amount of mental and physical stamina to be able to compete at the level of these athletes’ best efforts, much less of their fans’ expectations. Think of the appalling behavior of the French tennis audience towards an injured and retiring Nadal during the Paris tournament. This was a worse injury to Nadal than his knee, because a champion’s self-expectations are greater than any that the fans could convey. Nadal had to endure the fans’ selfish and painful assault on his already-battered mind and body with grace and amazing self-control. Next year’s ATP calendar moved the placement and timing of some tournaments, dropped some from the mandatory list, and awards points for Davis Cup, but did it improve the players’? No, it’s still too long and difficult, especially for those men who keep winning matches. Maybe those of us who follow tennis should voice our concerns and support of the players directly to the ATP.