Mark Petchey, former coach to both Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu, has insisted that a mid-season break needs to be implemented to the tennis calendar – which he proposes should take place immediately after Wimbledon.
Complaints have continued to soar from top players over the number of tournaments they feel compelled to compete in. Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek have led the backlash, explaining how stars do not get a break in the campaign to rest, recuperate or build up their physicality without a racket.
Raducanu and Novak Djokovic are among the players who have skipped chunks of the season to avoid a pile-up of matches, the former coming off a long-term injury and the latter in the twilight of his career and focusing on Grand Slams.
And Petchey has become the latest tennis figure to apply pressure to the ATP and WTA, going one further by naming the exact dates when tennis should come to a halt and allow players time to breathe.
“Obvious to everyone there should be a mid-season break,” Petchey wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). “Nothing after Wimbledon till 2 weeks before the US Open. Give fans and players a chance to recharge
“They run the season till end of October/first week November. Give players complete rest. Restart in Australia.”
After Alcaraz lost in the second round of the US Open to Botic van de Zandschulp, he explained that he took a short break from playing after taking the silver medal at the Olympics, but still needed more time to recuperate from a busy year.
“Yeah, I mean, tennis calendar is so tight,” the world No. 3 explained. “I’ve been playing a lot of matches lately. With Roland Garros, Wimbledon, Olympics Games, I took a little break after Olympic Games. I thought it was obviously really helpful for me, probably wasn’t enough.”
Frustrated players have become a common theme in 2024 and the sport could reach a tipping point, while Petchey felt that one of the reasons why Netflix’s fly-on-the-wall tennis docuseries Point Break “didn’t work” was because of complaints aimed towards the schedule by players.
In a bid to recapture the success ‘Drive to Survive’ had on Formula One reaching a new audience, production dropped on ‘Break Point’ after two seasons and a third is unlikely without increased viewership.
“One of the reasons Break Point didn’t work was there was too much moaning about how tough life is on the tour. Normal people look at those days of work and the amount potentially you can make and get turned off with the ‘life is so tough’ line,” Petchey added.
“No one isn’t saying it’s hard, the schedule could be better but most of the discussions about how to make it make more sense should be done behind closed doors.”