The ATP Tour is continuing its busy schedule with another week of Miami Open action, which comes to a conclusion on Sunday.
And it has coincided with a serious issue off the court, with the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) filing a lawsuit against the sport’s governing bodies.
Backed by the likes of ATP stars Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios, the PTPA aims to improve player welfare with its legal action.
It remains to be seen what outcome will transpire from the lawsuit, with a lot of players having been forced to tackle the issue during the Miami Open.
Former world number one Andy Roddick has now shared his take, along with current ATP number 104 Chris Eubanks.
Andy Roddick demands ATP Tour fixes its schedule
Speaking on his Served podcast, Roddick said: “ATP, you have got to fix the schedule. You have to. It can’t be 11 months.
“You have to buy back a lot of the 250s and work backwards from September after the US Open. Find a way to trim four weeks, that’s the ideal scenario. You have to.
“Hopefully Chris doesn’t need to but by the time the end of October comes, in a perfect world, the ATP Finals would already have been played.
“Chris should have the right if he’s 80 in the world, 120 in the world. If he’s 30 in the world maybe he doesn’t need these.
“But imagine a job where the people who work the most, you forced them into working more instead of rewarding the work they have put in with some rest.
“Whereas you have people on their way up or fighting for their ranking position, clear the runway for those people to go nuts in November. Clear it.
“The ATP, I am going after you right now, because you have to maintain an ounce of credibility. You f—— up the schedule royally.
“All we hear is that we are going to have the best interest of shortening the season, shortening the season.
“You talk about it all the time but then what do you do? With not a lot of player input you are making every event two weeks, you are adding weeks to the calendar, you are going to put one in February – don’t be shocked when that one comes around.
“And we hear about buy backs and they don’t happen. There has to be a restructuring of the schedule. That’s the biggest way to claw back player support, especially from those who have been creating the most revenue and putting in the most work on court.”
Chris Eubanks shares ‘unpopular’ feeling from ATP dressing rooms
It is, of course, a complicated issue that the ATP has on its hands, with fans now well-used to the constant action and back-to-back tournaments.
The Sunshine Double is the perfect example, with the ATP Masters 1000 events of Indian Wells and the Miami Open undoubtedly a huge challenge for many players.
Former world number 29 Eubanks took on both tournaments, falling in qualifying in the former and in the first round of the latter.
The American did, however, play Challenger events in Phoenix and Morelia immediately after those respective exits.
He talked in detail of that scenario in his schedule analysis, with Eubanks saying: “I think fans have to understand, the reason why players are not in favour of these two-week events is because although it gives a day of rest in between each match, a day of rest at a tournament is not a day of rest for recovery.
“It is that you are now forcing players tournaments that used to be one week, the tournament is now a 12-day event. Now they have to get there a bit earlier, they have to prepare, they have to adjust to the conditions.
“If they lose early in the tournament a lot of times there is another tournament they can play that second week, so now they are having to scramble and make arrangements to go and play, in the case of Indian Wells you have to play Phoenix or the Dominican Republic.
“So now you are travelling and playing again that second week. From that second week of a Challenger you then go to Miami, which is another two-week event, you play there.
“So it is constant hopping around and that doesn’t allow time for the body and the mind to rest and recover.
“When the Masters were one-week events, yes less players got in, and I think that will be the ATP’s response – hey we increased it to two-week events we now allow players ranked 150 or 160 to be able to get into these big events and get a bigger pay check outside of the Grand Slams so we are trying to spread the money all the way down the rankings – but I think it is still an unpopular thing from players inside the dressing rooms.
“We would rather have a little bit of time off or maybe we can set up and say if I don’t get into Madrid or Rome I will stay an extra week at home and go play a Challenger, or something else, instead of having to be there. Going to Europe now, if you leave for Madrid, you are gone for 12 weeks.”
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