By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday May 30, 2025
Paris – Struggling players are once again making the call to shorten the season.
After dropping out in second-round action at Roland-Garros, Casper Ruud and Alex de Minaur both pointed to the rigors of the tour’s calendar and said that it is next to impossible not to suffer mentally and physically during a “rat race” season that never ends.
“I’m just tired. I’m tired mentally. I’m a little bit burnt out, if anything,” said Alex de Minaur after blowing a two sets to love lead against Alexander Bublik.
The Aussie says having two days for an off-season for several years running is a recipe for a meltdown.
“The solution is simple: you shorten the schedule, right?” de Minaur told reporters. “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.”
De Minaur is always quick to join the Australian Davis Cup team, which means he is stretched to the gills by the time the season finally ends.
“Once you start, you don’t finish until November 24th, right?” he said. “So it’s just never ending. That’s the sheer fact of it. 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.”
Casper Ruud, who carried a knee injury into Paris, bowed out in the second round to Nuno Borges in four sets. An uncharacteristic loss for a guy who has two Roland-Garros finals on his CV.
“It’s kind of like a rat race when it comes to the rankings, as well,” Ruud said. “You feel you’re obligated to play with certain rules that the ATP have set up with the mandatory events. You feel like you lose a lot if you don’t show up and play, both economically, point-wise, ranking-wise and opportunity-wise.” Ruud says that the stress is augmented by some of the byzantine rules that the tour uses to keep players on the hamster wheel.
“If you don’t play a mandatory event, they cut 25 percent of your year-end bonus,” he said. “You’re kind of forcing players to show up injured or sick, or whatever, when that is not what I think is very fair.”
The Norwegian is looking forward to taking some time off, to say the least.
“Anyways it’s been deal-able, like I said. I’ve been able to deal with the pain. It hasn’t been too bad. Some days are worse than others. I’m just looking forward to not being on some painkillers for some days now.”
