"There is no bias": Taylor Fritz backs Jack Draper's comments about gruelling schedule, explains fans reasons behind players suffering more injuries

America’s Taylor Fritz put in a lot of time to back Britain’s Jack Draper’s comments about tough scheduling. Britain’s number one, in a post on his X account on Saturday, criticised the schedule and stated how it has impacted the tennis world.

“Injuries are going to happen… we are pushing our bodies to do things they aren’t supposed to in elite sport,” Draper wrote. “We have so many incredible younger guys on the tour right now and I’m proud to be apart of that, however, the tour and the calendar have to adapt if any of us are gonna achieve some sort of longevity.”

Draper is not the first person to have raised a voice about the way the tennis schedule has been organised. Current world number one Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz was the first big name in 2024 to spark the debate about how strict the schedule is for players, especially for players who are not among the top-10 in the ATP and WTA rankings.

Those comments were backed by women’s current number two, Iga Swiatek, last year. In recent years, former world number one and 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic has raised concerns about the tennis schedule and asked players to put up a more united front to address the crisis. Most recently, Norway’s Casper Ruud has come out and criticised the length of the ATP Masters, which have now increased to nearly two weeks.

Fritz was the most high-profile player who commented under the post of Draper and backed his claim that the tough schedule is one of the reasons behind players suffering from serious injuries. “Facts, also seeing more injuries and burnout now than ever before because balls, courts, conditions have slowed down a lot making the weekly grind even more physically demanding and tough on the body,” wrote Fritz.

From there on, Fritz was involved in a lengthy argument explaining what he tried to explain in the first post. In the earlier phase of the argument, Fritz explained how balls make a big difference in how fast the court plays. Fritz used the example of how the speed of the court during the Shanghai Masters made it ‘brutal’ for the players.

“Balls make a much bigger difference on how fast the court plays than the actual court speed,” wrote Fritz in a series of post. “Shanghai last year had a very high CPI but the slow balls we used made it play slow. This year the balls were still slow and they also slowed the courts and it was brutal. I can say with certainty every ball we played with consistently, with the exception of the US Open ball that is used for Toronto, Cincinnati, US Open, is much slower and more dead compared to when I started my career. A lot of people struggle to differentiate between slow ball / slow court. It’s only something I have picked up in recent years. It’s easy to play with a slow ball and just think the court is slow when maybe it’s not and vice versa. A good example of this is that I heard someone play tested the ball for Shanghai prior to the Shanghai event and said it was a fast ball, and that is one of the reasons Shanghai slowed the court down. I can assure you whoever play tested the ball did so on a lightning fast court and couldn’t differentiate the two so they thought the ball was fast.”

One user then highlighted that it does not make sense for players to complain about a demanding schedule while still playing in exhibition events to earn more money, such as the Six Kings Slams, in which Fritz himself was a part. In response, Fritz stated that he ‘understands’ the complaint but tried to differentiate between a competitive event and a two- or three-day exhibition event like the Six Kings Slam.

“I can understand that complaint,” wrote Fritz. “The only thing I’m trying to say is that the fatigue, stress, and overall time commitment of these events is nowhere near the same as playing a tour event. All that being said i still am turning down several Exo events that would pay well because there are times I desperately need the rest.”

One user went on to highlight that it is only the players who failed to win a Grand Slam that are complaining about the court conditions and balls being used in different events. The user named the likes of Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, Germany’s Alexander Zverev and interestingly, Fritz as well. In response to that, the 2024 US Open runner-up stated that he never complained about the surface or the balls and that he is just trying to state facts and that such conditions are contributing to players suffering from more injuries.

“There’s nowhere where you will find me complaining about how the conditions hurt my game,” wrote Fritz. “I am having the most successful years of my career in the current conditions. That’s why you should understand there is no bias when I am simply stating what you are also stating balls and court conditions are slower and that is contributing to more injuries. That is all, that is my entire point.”