One of the most commonly aired grievances against professional tennis is the endlessly spinning nature of the carousels that the sport is built upon – namely, the ATP and WTA Tour circuits.
This extensive issue comprises a sweeping set of complaints, ranging from gripes about the whirlwind turnaround of back-to-back tournaments to the recent expansion of several 1000-level events into 12-day mini-marathons.
There are, as always, caveats and counter-arguments to these contentions. For example, as independent contractors, a player’s schedule is, to some extent, at the discretion of the player and his or her team. Burnout and fatigue can often be managed with sensible planning, and players are not required to compete in every event on the calendar.
Yet, this is often easier in theory than it is in practice. Case in point, both the ATP and the WTA have a set number of mandatory tournaments. Including the season-ending ATP/WTA Finals, this comes to 17 events for Top 30 players on the men’s side and 21 for the leading women’s names.
Failure to meet this quota – with some leniency given for injury-related absences – can result in penalties in the form of ranking points and bonus pool money deductions.
This debate is complicated further by exhibition tournaments – specifically, the willingness and frequency with which top players will compete at these friendlies for big-money paydays, while simultaneously complaining about a congested calendar.
‘Extra-Curricular’ Tournaments Eating Into the Off-Season
But one particular pain-point appears to rear its head more than any other, and for good reason. The length of a six-week off-season feels, to the majority of players, too short in a sport that otherwise runs unrelentingly across the year’s remaining 46 weeks.
At first glance, that may seem like at least a reasonable amount of time off. Yet, in reality, a number of factors eat into this precious window, leading some to argue that tennis ceases once a year in name only.
The Davis Cup, for example, removes a whole seven days from that six-week starting point. The same was true of the Billie Jean King Cup until this year, when it was moved to late September by the ITF in a bid to align better with the WTA Tour and allay this very concern.
Kudos, then, to the WTA and the ITF in addressing this issue. Except for the fact that these gains, for a certain group of players, are completely negated by another head-scratching decision that drags the WTA year yet further into the so-called off-season.
That is, the ranking cut-off for the Australian Open is set for December 8, rather than at the close of the regular season that arrives a whole month earlier. The crux of the issue here is that – despite the tennis year having officially ended – there are still ranking points on offer on the WTA Challenger circuit in Chile, Argentina, Ecuador and France across late November and early December.
Presumably, this is why the cut-off for Melbourne is left open so late. Namely, the commercial interest of those smaller tournaments wanting to avoid the slip into total irrelevance. True, these events provide a platform for lower-ranked players to gain competitive experience during an otherwise fallow time of year.
But their existence also poses a quandary for players who are hovering in and around the cut for direct Australian Open qualification – essentially, whether to prioritise much-needed rest, recovery and training in the slim annual timeframe of holiday available, or whether to chase guaranteed qualification for the season’s opening Grand Slam in January.
“Between My Body and My Ranking” – Katie Boulter’s Predicament
Katie Boulter, the current World No. 103, has recently spoken of facing this exact dilemma. With 104 players making it straight into the main draw in Australia – including those with protected rankings and wildcard entries – the former British No. 1 is almost directly straddling that line between direct entry and having to go through qualification.
Speaking to BBC Sport last week, the three-time WTA titlist outlined the predicament she faces, having suffered a torn abductor in Hong Kong last month that ended her regular season – one which ideally requires more rest to fully recover from.
“If there are tournaments there, it gives you an opportunity because you want to make the main draw of Australia,” Boulter said.
“I’m in this predicament myself right now, and it’s almost like I have to choose between my body or my ranking. I think I know my own right choice, but it’s difficult because it means that everyone else is going to be playing and passing me.”
The fact that the ATP this year changed the rule for the first time by moving the ranking cut-off date to align with the last day of the season, in direct response to this very issue, surely puts further onus on the WTA to do the same in the near future.
“I do think that would probably be the smart thing to do. There has to be somewhere where you draw the line and you give people an opportunity to recuperate and also get a good pre-season in,” Boulter asserted.
“I feel like this year we’ve seen so many burnouts, and so many people not playing the end of year because of mental health issues as well as body issues, and I do think it contributes to it.”
Pressing Calls for Change Grow Louder
As player welfare comes increasingly under the microscope – not least in the form of legal action against six of the sport’s seven governing bodies taken by the player-led PTPA – and the numbers of late-season injuries, mental health issues, and claims of burnout continue to grow, discussions around how best to mitigate these problems should take on a greater sense of urgency.
In the vast auspices that govern the tennis landscape, and the myriad of different organisations with their own commercial interests to consider, change in this sport is often notoriously slow to be enacted.
Yet there are simple, tangible, and easily-implemented corrections that can and should be applied with little disruption to the overall structure of the season and without greatly upsetting anyone’s own financial needs.
A ranking-point cut-off date, for the opening tournaments of the following year, aligning with the final day of the WTA season, would be an eminently sensible place to start.
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