Reduce tennis tournaments
August 26, 2005
With the news coming in that Clijsters is likely to retire at the end of 2007 aged 24-25, the feeling that some thing is wrong with the way tennis is played at the highest level cannot stop from surfacing. Martina Hingis retired at a very young age and tennis lost one of its most dedicated, gifted players.
Yevgnevy Kafelnikov, who played more than any one on the tour, got the label of a player who was playing for money and not for the pasison of the game. Sport is a dramatisation of life. If it is made mechanical by having tournaments 48-52 weeks a year, 3 tournaments a week, the quality and uniqueness of tournaments is bound to be minimised.
Player burnouts will also invariably happen. Chris Evert needed time off from tennis in a day and age when tennis was not played so much. The modern demands of the sport, the travelling, the pressure of spending time away from family is some thing we cannot augur. No other professional sport demands such a tough routine.
I hope things change.
