"You have to go on-site to do the withdrawal": Robson and Henman speak up about injured players' struggles in ATP

The controversies surrounding the ATP's hectic calendar continue to draw criticism. Stefanos Tsitsipas recently joined the chorus of complaints, and now Laura Robson and Tim Henman have revealed the difficulties faced by injured players who are forced to skip tournaments.

Recently, Andrea Gaudenzi commented on the possibility of bringing back best-of-five-set finals at Masters 1000 events. Additionally, it was recently announced that most of these tournaments would be extended to two weeks, further increasing the demands on top players.

British experts Laura Robson and Tim Henman criticized the ATP for forcing injured players to travel to mandatory tournaments, even if they are injured, just to show up and withdraw.

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Tsitsipas also had his own criticisms: "If the goal was to ease the calendar, extending every 1000 to two weeks is a backwards move," he said. "The Masters 1000 new concept hasn't been great and I haven't really been a huge fan of it and I'm willing to express it, I don't mind because that's my opinion," the world No. 11 said.

After hearing Tsitsipas' complaints, Laura Robson expressed similar sentiments. "I feel like he's kind of probably behind the scenes been talking about this for quite a while but now has seen no progress or no resolution or maybe not even much feedback from the tour," Robson explained. "And so he's clearly gotten to the point where he feels that he should say it publicly."

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Tim Henman then added to his colleague's comments. "We've heard [Carlos] Alcaraz say that he's just absolutely exhausted, he feels like the events are kind of killing him," he said. "It must be hard for the tour to listen to that when it's only recently that they've been looking to extend these Masters 1000s and the reality is they are in tournament environments so much longer."

"If you're winning matches, which those top players are, then you're not getting any opportunity of actually resting and recovering and stepping away, giving you a chance for your body and your mind to recover but then actually also working on things to improve your game."

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Robson again took the floor and criticized the requirement to travel to the tournament site to withdraw despite injuries. "You have obviously your right to say that you're injured and most likely you are injured because it's been such a long season," he said. "But more often than not, you have to go on-site to do the withdrawal and so it doesn't even work out like a rest, it doesn't even work out like you're just able to take the week off because you still have those commitments elsewhere."

“You still have to do your media commitments, your tournament aces as they’re called, and it’s kind of relentless. So it’s difficult for players to find the right balance at the moment.”