De Minaur advocates for a shortened ATP calendar: “I’m mentally tired”
Alex de Minaur lost in five sets to Alexander Bublik in the second round of Roland-Garros on Thursday.
Inside / Psnewz
Alex de Minaur is at the end of his rope. Beaten in the second round of Roland Garros by Alexander Bublik after leading two sets to love, the Australian player was understandably very disappointed at his press conference. Unaccustomed to making excuses, he – this time – spoke to reporters about mental fatigue, with the ATP Tour leaving little room for rest.
“I’m just tired. I’m tired mentally. I’m a little bit burnt out, if anything. A lot of tennis being played. In a way, the good thing is that what’s happened today is something like a miracle, right, in the sense that I’m not known for these types of performances or losing a match like this from two sets to love up. I’m probably known for the opposite, which is just being consistent and not losing really matches that I shouldn’t be losing. Saying all this, obviously have to have a hard chat with the team and analyze everything that’s been happening, kind of find a reason of why this happened today.”
The ATP Tour season runs from early January to late November for a player like Alex de Minaur, who competes in the Davis Cup every year for Australia. With a preseason block of at least two weeks, there are very few days left to go on vacation and disconnect in order to be mentally and physically ready for a new year.
THE SOLUTION IS TO SHORTEN THE CALENDAR, BECAUSE OTHERWISE PLAYERS’ CAREERS WILL BECOME SHORTER AND SHORTER.
In 2024, Alex de Minaur played his last match, against Jannik Sinner in the Davis Cup, on November 23, 2024, and officially resumed the following season at the United Cup with a victory against Tomas Martin Etcheverry on December 28… 2024! A (too?) short break to be ready for the first Grand Slam of the season, at home, in Australia.
For the world number nine, things must change regarding the ATP circuit calendar, which is too long and too restrictive.
“I mean, no one’s got a solution. But the solution is simple: you shorten the schedule, right? What’s not normal is that for the last three, four years I’ve had two days off after Davis Cup, and I’ve gone straight into pre-season, straight into the new season again. Yeah, sure, I mean, I could have maybe taken a week or a week and a half. Then That means my pre-season is two weeks long and I’m already starting in Australia, which is my home ground where I want to be doing well. Once you start, you don’t finish until November 24th, right? So it’s just never ending. That’s the sheer fact of it.”
“The way it’s structured, as Casper put it out there, I had to deal with that. I’m still dealing with that right now, right? My ranking right now consists of two zeros because I was injured and I couldn’t play Cincinnati, Montreal – well, three – and Shanghai, which is ridiculous if you ask me, right? That’s just the rules of the tour and where we are right now. The solution is you shorten it, because what’s going to happen is players’ careers are going to get shorter and shorter because they’re just going to burn out mentally. There’s just too much tennis.”
Alex de Minaur is close to burnout and will likely have to take a long break, before returning for the third Grand Slam of the season at Wimbledon.
