Prior to the start of the Australian Open there was a great deal of worry about whether this could be the most underwhelming edition in quite some time. You only needed to take a glance at the list of star names that wouldn’t be featuring, including the 2017 women’s champion Serena Williams and former world number one Andy Murray, to understand why there was such anxiety.
Within a week of the first match more than five of the world’s top 20 men and women had also exited the tournament, leaving many disappointed by the potential lack of quality on offer in the latter stages.
Seeing multiple Grand Slam winners like Stan Wawrinka and top-five players such as Alexander Zverev suffer shock defeats has once again raised questions about the tour schedule.
Many of the individuals able to compete were actually far from being 100%, for instance Johanna Konta being hindered by a troublesome hip problem just weeks before. Although fit enough to be out on the court they are already at a significant disadvantage to other opponents, usually not able to reach their full potential.
Whilst it is good in some ways because there is a greater chance for the next level of players, such as Kyle Edmund, to excel there is a growing concern the biggest stars will continue to miss the Grand Slam tournaments.
The number of events taking place each year hasn’t changed dramatically over the past few seasons, with just three more set to be played in 2018 compared with five years ago (65).
An ever-expanding set of far-flung locations is proving to be the big problem, with players travelling more than ever, allowing less time to properly recover between events.
Last year’s US Open proved to be one of the worst affected, in terms of top-ranked players missing the event, with the five most successful men of 2016 absent in New York.
The World No.1 explains his retirement through injury in his QF v #Cilic
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One of the main issues with altering the venues or even trying to shorten the length of the schedule is the potential loss of sponsorship.
In 2015, Emirates signed a long-term deal with the ATP, reported to be worth $50million, with one of the main aims being to improve brand awareness.
If the sport’s organizing bodies suddenly decided to cut tournaments, then there will be a decrease in the amount of exposure for brands, meaning they might twice about renewing or even worse pull the plug on funding altogether.
One suggestion that has been put forward to counter the rising injury rate to players is to potentially shorten the length of matches, for instance making men’s games a best-of-three format instead of five.
This would help prevent marathon encounters between players, giving them a better chance of recharging their batteries and as a result hopefully reducing the risk of injuries flaring up.
Any such changes would only take effect after next season when the governing bodies are set to review the schedule.
However, if there continues to be a mass exodus of the world’s top-ranked players from the major events then it might become a matter of necessity in order to maintain a high-quality spectacle.
