Andy Murray shares his opinion on tennis calendar

LONDON: British tennis star Andy Murray has shared his opinion on the most discussed topic these days: the tennis calendar. Murray retired from professional tennis a few years ago, but is still active in the sport in different roles. At the start of this year, he collaborated with Novak Djokovic as a coach but parted ways with the Serbian after six months.

However, he continues attracting the attention of tennis fans with his statements. In a guest appearance on The Tennis Podcast, Murray criticised the players who follow the schedule too seriously, giving an example of Djokovic, saying that you are allowed to miss the tournament, and the Serbian is a good example of that this year. “It’s a regret of mine that as a player, a lot of them just follow what the schedule says that you have to do,” Murray said. “Novak is a good example of that this year, where he has not done that, and at times Federer did not do that. You are allowed to miss tournaments. Obviously, there are certain penalties in place for that. There is a bit of a balance to it.” Extending Masters tournaments to two weeks has sparked special frustrations among tennis players, especially veterans and experienced competitors.

Andy Murray said that he was on the ATP Player Council when the decision was taken to extend the Masters tournaments; he was against it but could not prevent it. “I was sitting on the ATP Player Council when this got voted for, to change the Masters series to longer events. I was completely against that change, because one, I liked the Masters series how they were. They were great events,” Murray added.

“And the feeling from the ATP at the time was that there would be less injuries because you would have more time to recover between matches. “But my feeling was that if you put a two-week tournament on, there is less time for players to actually recover as well.” Web Desk