Longer tournaments provide rest for players in theory, but is it the right kind of rest?
Andy Roddick has ripped the modern nature of tennis with Jannik Sinner seen by the former World No.1 of confounding his issues by continuing to chase the extra percentage points to be the best.
Roddick said that in reality, no player is Novak Djokovic and so his lead shouldn't be followed. Djokovic is long seen as a bit of a tennis anomaly as even at 37, he can turn up to a tournament only working off court and still win it.
But the younger generation in a bid to get to the success levels of the great Serbian quicker have been in the gym constantly including during a two week Masters tournament, the first of two followed by a Grand Slam. This in the view of Roddick isn't counter intuitive and does more harm than good in the long run.
As evidenced by Sinner pulling up and not playing in Rome. He is now working with the Juventus Medical Center to try and get himself ready for Roland Garros, but it seems it could yet be an uphill task. But it is an overall message for the whole of the tour in the view of Roddick that the matches should count as exercise and not adding to the workload.
"Jannik Sinner aggravated his injury by working all the time in the gym during the Madrid tournament, in addition to playing. Jannik wants to be the ATP No.2 and to achieve this he must play all the tournaments. Not everyone is Novak Djokovic who wins three Slams in a season and therefore you have to work hard, especially when you are young.
There is a lot of stress in modern tennis, the fact that a tennis player like Sinner decides to do a complete workout in the gym during such an important tournament is something to think about. If you are playing training like this continuously during the tournament is excessive, you shouldn't do both."
Longer tournaments provide rest for players in theory, but is it the right kind of rest?