Alex de Minaur, like many, has led the charge for tennis to make a change to its hectic schedule.
After all, it demands so much of the players, both physically and mentally.
They travel all over the world and compete in gruelling, multiple-hour matches, only to be forced to lose sleep in favour of media duties and then get up to do it all over again the following day.
It’s a flawed system, but one that has been in place for so long now.
However, whilst the players who make their stand on these issues are brave and deserving of praise, it does diminish their claims when they make decisions like the one Alex de Minaur has just made.
Alex de Minaur’s complaints about the tennis schedule
As recently as mid-way through the US Open, the top-ranked Australian voiced his complaints about the tennis schedule.
When discussing the topic of coaches within the sport, and the need to have multiple, he admitted: “The schedule that we have as players is never ending, and more often than not, that’s the whole reasoning for having two coaches.
“To split the weeks so they can, of course, spend time with their family. Because the players themselves, I know what I signed up for. I’m used to that, and it’s one of the not ideal scenarios of our sport that I don’t get to spend time at home with family and close friends.”
Carlos Alcaraz has also criticised the tennis schedule at length, yet nothing ever seems to change.
However, it’s hard to take them seriously when they add events like the Laver Cup onto their calendar.
Alex de Minaur joins Laver Cup team and adds another event to his calendar
The Laver Cup has been going for eight years now and has been a hugely successful event.
It allows players to feature in a low-pressure environment and another team scenario, of which there are few within this sport.
However, at the end of the day, it is a new tournament in a new city.
For De Minaur in particular, his schedule has arguably never looked so hectic, after accepting the offer to replace Frances Tiafoe on Team World.
Following the conclusion of his US Open campaign, he has flown to Sydney to compete in the Davis Cup.
From there, he will have to return to America to play in the three-day Laver Cup in San Francisco, before then heading over to China for the Beijing Open.
Across just a two-week period, De Minaur will have played on three different continents in three separate events, two of which don’t even contribute to his rankings.
Whilst it does not devalue the legitimacy of his scheduling argument, it does look a little ridiculous for him to voluntarily bolster his calendar after all his vocal frustration.
