RE: Australian Open: Young Guys Are Joining The Party
You're right, AO this year is interesting in term of results and originality. It's always good to see the next gen growing up and causing trouble to the big 4 (which may not exist anymore sadly or not ).
I am wondering about 2 issues I have seen. First the temperature. Is it really wise to maintain matches under 40°C ? And not even for the players, but for the spectators. I have seen some poor match with exhausted players during the first week. I think the question makes sense.
The other point has been recall by Rafa and I think he is absolutely right. Rafa, Djoko, and even Murray have raised a lot the global tennis level. To do that, they worked on the physical part, becoming real warriors on the court. This physical work has a clear impact on the body raising the number and the gravity of injuries. I think the ATP has to find solutions (calendar review, tournament format review, ...) to adapt to this game evolution. If not the coming years will be weird. We will probably see an incredible Zverev, Thiem, Chung, ... during 1 year before an injury and a long recovery such as Murray or Djoko nowadays.
Else the players might make there own revolution, and Roger started it with the Laver cup, but maybe that's the future of tennis :-)
Yeah, I agree with the part about injuries. I remember the interview in which Mcenroe said that they used to party every day and enjoy life and players nowadays don't do that anymore because of the intensity. It's good for the fans, but for the players... not so much. However, no one would understand seeing how the level of the game drops or seeing fewer tournaments. I guess the only solution for players is to participate in fewer tournaments throughout the year and take care of their health firts.
Hard for the players to limit themselves. I am sure solutions can be found. Maybe create a lighter ATP season for the best players only, and a secondary one for the next (reviewing the ATP points distribution). Limit the number of tournaments for each player. Increase the tournaments duration (even if it means more tournaments at the same time).
I am not saying that it is easy or that these solutions are good. But doing nothing might be really harmfull for this sport.