Andy Roddick has been a consistently vociferous complainer about the length of the ATP season.
With Federer and Murray both missing from this week’s Shanghai Masters with various illness/injury complaints, Roddick has chosen to use the moment to step up his attack on the ATP.
"I've certainly have not been shy about saying that at a certain point, something's gotta give. There's got to be some time to get yourself right physically and mentally,” said Roddick. "Right now, that's just not the case, and you're seeing it with Roger and Murray being out in Tokyo - and with both missing this week's Shanghai Masters.”
The women’s end of season championships are in a fortnight’s time but the men’s season continues to drag into November with the finale in London still a month away.
With the Davis Cup final even later in the season than usual, coming at the start of December, there will be precious little off season for the top players from Spain and the Czech Republic before the circus starts all over again in January.
Roddick believes that the injury travails of Rafael Nadal this year sum up the problems with the tour. Nadal has been consistently injured since May with injuries afflicting both knees and an abdominal strain. "Rafael had a four-month problem. Everyone acts surprised when that happens, but I think the fact that we play all the time and all of a sudden something happens, it's really not that surprising,” he said.
