David Ferrer pleased with the changes in next season’s schedule – Tennis News
ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) has finally curtailed the complainingly long tennis season for the year 2012 to give a little sigh of relief to the players. There will be the same number of mandatory tournaments to be
played by every player but it is the longer off-season what most players are pleased
about.
A number of top ranked players, including Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and David Ferrer have been persistently criticizing the tantalizingly busy schedule of ATP throughout the current year and the authorities have finally agreed to cut it down
next year. After losing the semi-final at the season ending grand finale, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London, the fifth ranked Ferrer admitted in a press conference that the hectic season has taken a huge toll out of him and he feels tired for taking
part in the Davis Cup Finals a week later. Nadal and Ferrer will be dragging their aching bodies to represent Team Spain against Argentina in the final showdown one more week.
The new schedule was welcomed by Ferrer, who believes that the changes should have incorporated way before to ensure physical fitness of tennis players. He cited that a demanding schedule take too much out of players’ body, resulting in persistent injuries
to sideline them from the competition.
“I think all the players know the season is very long and is very tough for us,” Ferrer expressed. “We play a lot of tournaments. We finish in December. Now I will play in the Davis Cup. Finally in December I will have only one week to rest and then I will
come back in January to play in the new season. We know
that and we want to change. We need to change the calendar.”
Two weeks have been taken out of the 2012 ATP season followed by the US Open and it also includes seven days’ gap between the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris and the ATP World Tour Finals.
Despite the changes made in the next ATP season schedule, 2012 will host the Olympic Games in summer to make the year just as demanding. The massive sports gala will come between the Wimbledon Championships and the US Open next year but the players are still
delighted with the longer off-season, which will give the players an extra fortnight before starting the new ATP season.
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