Djokovic: Schedule needs addressing

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:52

Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick have both taken swipes at the 11-month annual programme this week, claiming it causes injuries and shortens careers.

“The top players will meet in London and then again at the Australian Open in January,” the 22-year-old Serbian told The Independent. “We will work on doing something that is comfortable to both the players and the tournaments in the future.”

He added: “The tournaments still understand their job and their obligations better than we understand their job – and vice-versa. But the players now are more united than ever.

“The current leadership of the ATP is willing to do a lot of things for the players. We have already talked about it at the US Open and we have to dedicate the whole half-a-day meeting to this, because it’s a very sensitive task.

“It affects both players and tournaments. We can’t expect just to shorten the season by a month or two, because that would hurt certain tournaments.

“We have to make a compromise. The ATP is an association of tournaments and players together. The bottom line is that you don’t want to have injured players. The schedule, in my opinion, is too long, but we have to go step by step and try to solve it.”

Roddick, who was yesterday forced out of the Shanghai Masters with a left knee injury, labelled the Tour requirements “ridiculous” and “short-sighted”, while Nadal claimed it was “impossible” to play from the start of January through to December 5.

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