Roddick Seeks Overhaul of Never-Ending Schedule
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 15, 2006
Andy Roddick looks at a tennis calendar that never seems to end and the list of injuries that keeps growing. He suspects it is time to take action.
He wants players to form a union and send a message to those who run the sport.
"It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out why people are getting hurt," Roddick said Wednesday.
Consider the Australian Open, the season's first major, which begins tomorrow in Melbourne. It is fast resembling an orthopedist's waiting room.
The defending men's champion, Marat Safin, and the French Open winner Rafael Nadal withdrew with lingering knee and ankle injuries. Andre Agassi, who has won the tournament four times, is out with an ailing ankle. Thomas Johansson, the 2002 winner, has assorted injuries. Thomas Enqvist, a 1999 finalist, withdrew from the qualifying tournament because of an aching back.
The top-ranked Roger Federer will be playing, but with his own medical concerns - an ankle injury that limited him at the end of last season.
Roddick, competing in Australia at an exhibition tournament in Kooyong, defeated Tommy Haas in the final yesterday, 6-3, 7-6 (6), in his final tuneup for the Australian Open. It was Roddick's first event since early November, when a back problem forced him to join Safin and Nadal as absentees from the season-ending Masters Cup.
"It's a different game now with the physicality of it," Roddick said. "The players are bigger and stronger. It's just tougher on the body. I believe strongly it's in the best interests of the game to try and come up with a way to give us some sort of an off-season to recover."
Roddick understands that complaints about little time off between seasons have been around for a while. He also conceded it was a coincidence that three of the most prominent male players were missing from the first Grand Slam tournament of the year.
"But I just think something needs to be done that's in the best interest of players and their health," he said. "Someone is going to have to give.
"The tournament directors, the I.T.F., the Davis Cup, the Grand Slams - they're all different entities and you'd think they would want to work together for the greater good, but they each want their little slice of the pie and they're not willing to give that up."
Roddick, the 2003 United States Open champion, said the crowded calendar came down to business rather than "common logic." He also acknowledged that forming a union, similar to those of the major team sports in North America, was exceedingly difficult because of the disparate and individual nature of tennis.
"Getting 100 players from this many countries, with language barriers, and get them all on the same page at one time, it's tough," he said. "For every person that says we're not healthy, there's another guy that says, 'Hey, I need those two extra weeks for the prize money.' "
Iggy Jovanovic, an ATP-appointed player representative, said the organization was revamping its structure. It is aiming to get an active player or players representative on the board.
The ATP held a mandatory players meeting yesterday in Melbourne. Etienne de Villiers, the new board chairman, reviewed the ATP structure last year and found that not enough attention was paid to players.
"He's looking at a structure that throws the needle back a bit toward the players and wants to get somebody in there who can meet with the players, be with the players, and bring their ideas and concerns directly to the board," Jovanovic said. |
