The tennis has reduced time: between power and speed and clock between serve and serve, exchanges have been minimized and points are discussed to three or four blows. But, at the same time, tennis lengthens the tournaments, multiplied … For two many of the 1,000 category competitions like this Mutua Madrid Open. There is less time on track, but more than a hotel. A trend that seeks the benefit of the players, but that some hug and others reject. In Madrid the debate emerges again, asked the most top rackets of the circuit, and there is no consensus. But experts in sports medicine are clear.
Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome, Cincinnati, Canada and Shanghai have doubled their duration, both in girls and boys. Only Montecarlo and Paris Male Circuit are still in seven days. In the female they maintain the week Qatar, Dubai, China and Wuhan. The Magic Fund was opened on Monday, April 21, with the previous phase and the arrival of the stars, exempt from the first round of the final painting. The female final is played on Saturday, May 3; La Masculina, on Sunday. 4. Half, opinions for all tastes.
Alexander Zverev He does not let the question end before sentencing this newspaper: «A week. The argument is always that we have more time to rest between games and moves like this. But for me, rest is when I’m at home. Resting is being with my daughter, with my family. Before, Madrid and Rome were a two -week trip, now it’s four weeks. We are not resting: we are away from home, training, preparing to play another games. It is not resting. It is much better for a week ».
That being out of home is what also pointed out Novak Djokovic As one of the great demands of tennis: «The calendar has always been very long, and lately there have been more changes, such as 1,000 masters. So we don’t have four Grand Slams, but eleven, because you’re away from home the same days. It is a long time on the road without seeing your family and far from home ». And tired, demands, saturate in some rackets, as in the case of Carlos Alcarazwhich has always defended the seven days of competition: «It is much better for tennis because from the first round you see matches of the highest level that make it interesting for people. And for us, it reduces the days and the demand to be away from home. If they last seven days, I would have the following week to recover and rest. After Montecarlo would have gone home, that everything feels calmly there and you think more clearly. It is said that it is to have a rest day, but it is not so. You are on the training track, preparing the next game … ».
Much more blunt was in Montecarlo Stefanos tsitsipas: «Two weeks, the quality of the tournaments has dropped. We do not have the recovery time or training necessary, with constant parties and without space for intense work outside the track. If the objective was to lighten the calendar, extend the 1,000 to two weeks is a setback. Sometimes I think they fix what is not broken ». For Alex de Miñaur It is also too much: «It is what there is, but now we have two tournaments that last a month. Do not play every day, but you are in competition mode, away from home. It is long. If I have to choose, I prefer Montecarlo type: play every day, without rest, but whatever happens is a week ».
In this Madrid tournament, in addition to the casualties before starting, there have been nine withdrawals – zero among them – due to physical problems dragged from one tournament to another or suddenly.
The duration has been decided so; Iga Swiatek He prefers to assume it: «I have stopped thinking about this because what I have to do is adapt. Some tournaments have been elongated for a while, so I have become accustomed to the system. I am also comfortable when they play in a week. My results do not change, so I don’t care. I like both ». Although he suffered yesterday one of his worst defeats, hit by Coco Gauff (6-1 and 6-1), which premieres final in Madrid.
After winning Daniil Medvedev (6-3 and 7-5) and citing Francisco chering him in the semifinals, Casper Ruud He made accounts: «Seven 1,000 to two weeks, plus two a week, plus the Grand Slams, are about 28-29 weeks a year in which you are forced to play or there are punishments. I understand that players begin to think that it is too much ».
On the other side of the discussion, the number 1 of the WTA, Aryna Sabalenka He has his very clear reasons: «I prefer two weeks because you compete one day and you have another to recover and explore the city, go to dinner with your team. It is a good balance. Maybe I’m getting older and I need more hours to recover, who knows. But yes, I prefer long tournaments. Everything depends from what extent the debate is observed; Those who are not so up in the classification coincide with number 1, although for different reasons. This is explained by the Argentine Francisco Comesaña, 70 of the ATP: «Those above get directly in the final painting, but if you are 60-70 you cannot. It is convenient for me to be two weeks because I can qualify, or it gives me time to go to another tournament. And if I win a game I can play against the best ranking ».
Money and health
There are other reasons in favor of the two weeks that in other cases are contradicted and in this they are complemented: money and health. «We understand the stir; The two weeks add saturation when they are away from home. But tennis players have the power to organize their calendar according to their priorities, something that other sports have, ”said the president of the ATP, in November, Andrea Gaudenziwhile adding that the extension attracted more sponsors, longer, which results in more economic opportunities for all.
Beyond money, Vicente Javier Clemente SuárezProfessor of Sports Sciences of the European University contributes to the balance physical and biological data: «A tennis party is very demanding for glycogen spending and that makes the recovery longer. When this glycogen is exhausted, due to wear and sweat, musculoskeletal injuries are easier, because the structure of cell membranes is more sensitive, and any mechanical variation of extension makes it susceptible to breakage ».
And the expert is clear: «Tennis has a very high load at the psychophysiological level for everything that has explosive movements: speed to vary the blow, sprints, changes of direction. That presses the nervous system, and needs time. Having 24 hours of recovery between matches affects the game itself, decision making, reaction times, the form of execution and the rhythm is improved. That is, with two weeks tournaments, in the last rounds, the tennis player can offer greater performance and can better exploit his qualities ». And the debate continues.
