Tim Henman Advocates for Proper ‘Break’ After Grand Slam Events Because There’s ‘Too Much Irrelevant Tennis’

Tim Henman called for an overhaul of the schedule after many top players said they felt completely burned out due to non-stop tennis.

Tim Henman Advocates for Proper ‘Break’ After Grand Slam Events Because There’s ‘Too Much Irrelevant Tennis’

Tim Henman (Image via X/Wimbledon)

Many tennis players, including some of the top 10 ones across Men’s and Women’s tour did not shy away from admitting that the crammed schedule is making them feel burned out. World No.5 Iga Swiatek has time and again said she needed some time for practice, rest, and recovery between tournaments. But the gap between the events is not at all enough as right after the conclusion of one tournament, another one kickstarts.

According to Carlos Alcaraz, the schedule “is going to kill us” as he thinks it is sometimes responsible for players’ injuries. After his Roland Garros exit, Casper Ruud said he was taking some anti-inflammatory pills and painkillers to heal a knee injury during the clay swing but the schedule was not allowing him to take a break. He criticized the ATP rankings as well, calling it a “rat race“.

Both the WTA and the ATP tours have mandatory tournaments and the consequence of not playing them would result in players getting zero points. Many tennis players are not at all fans of these mandatory tournaments because if they want to skip a tournament, they can’t, for fear of losing points.

Amid their complaints, Former ATP pro Tim Henman urged the governing bodies to make some changes to the calendar because players are “extremely unhappy“. He thinks if proper rest is given to players after Grand Slam tournaments, it will make things more meaningful.

When you look at the calendar, in my opinion, there’s too much irrelevant tennis. You want to have the big…the best players playing against each other at the biggest events and they are laid by the Slams, they’re the cornerstone of the sport. But then underneath that, if you had probably 10, 11, 12 events, but they were eight day-events…to have no tennis is a good thing. You know the week after a Grand Slam to have a break for everyone.

Tim Henman said on TNT Sports

Last year, World No.2 Alexander Zverev claimed that the tennis bodies don’t care about players because tennis is a “money business“. Daniil Medvedev said the schedule should mostly focus on the Grand Slams and Masters 1000 events.

Alex de Minaur slams the schedule after his early exit at the Roland Garros

The latest player to criticize the 11-month schedule was Daria Kasatkina. She said tennis players are “humans” and even though tennis helps them live a good life, continuous playing could lead to burnout, so needing some time to rest is “normal“.

Alex de Minaur
Alex de Minaur (Image via X/The Tennis Podcast)

Alex de Minaur blamed the calendar for his second-round exit at the French Open. After moving past Laslo Djere in straight sets, de Minaur couldn’t capitalize on his two-set lead, eventually losing the match to Alexander Bublik. De Minaur said he was not able to focus and complete his match because he suffered from burnout:

What’s not normal is that for the last three or four years I’ve had two days off, gone straight into pre-season and straight into the new season again, Once you start, you don’t finish until late November. It’s just never-ending. That’s the sheer fact of it.

The Aussie ATP ace played 23 tournaments (third most) last year. He thinks if players continue to play matches for 11 months, then their careers would get shorter.

Men’s World No.1 Jannik Sinner participated in 17 tournaments last year, playing 79 matches while Women’s World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka too played the same number of tournaments, with her match tally being 70. Many also believe playing through injuries in order to save their rankings points exacerbates the problem.

Also read: Jannik Sinner Shares Insightful Solution to the Women’s Scheduling Debate at Roland Garros