World number five, Alexander Zverev has called for the ATP to shorten the season after he suffered a shoulder injury during his quarter-final defeat to Karen Khachanov.
The German’s claim after he was the latest player to receive a medical time-out at the Rolex Paris Masters this week. This year’s tournament has already seen Damir Dzumhur retire and the high-profile withdrawals of Rafael Nadal and Milos Raonic.
The season currently starts in Brisbane in January and ends at the ATP World Tour Finals in London in mid-November. However the world number five has said 11 months is too long and the season needs to be shortened.
“I hope the season gets shorter,” Zverev claimed. “We have the four Grand Slams so we kind of got to adjust to them as well. But I do hope at some point the ATP will realize that tennis players can’t play for 11 months a year and that we actually need time to take for our bodies and actually rest.
“Because, you know, this tournament has a history of having winners that won’t usually win Masters here and that’s because the top players have played so much that they’re tired. And that shows a little bit as well.”
Even though his last comment could be deemed as controversial the German makes a very valid point and with next year’s Davis Cup Finals, players will be given even less time to recover for the following year.
When speaking about his own injury Zverev said that he knew he wasn’t going to win the match in the warmup, “At today’s warmup, because, I mean, I had pain the whole week,” the German stated.
“And after yesterday’s match, you know, I had a lot of pain in the evening and during the night as well. And then today during the warmup, you know, especially on my second serve where I was doing the kick motion, I mean, I had a lot of pain. And just kind of stretching, and it was tough.”
The 21 year-old will have a week to rest up before the ATP World Tour Finals start in London, when the tournament begins on the 11th of November.
