Jannik Sinner is out of the Italian Open 2024 with a hip injury, which has largely jeopardised his chances to make it in time for the French Open 2024. It is a massive disappointment for his fans around the world and more so in Italy, since they were excited to see an in-form Sinner play on clay that too on home soil.
Sinner’s absence will negatively impact viewership on TV and digital mediums apart from gate receipts. The Italian Open has been scheduled right after the Madrid Open where he aggravated the injury and this kind of scheduling has angered former World No.1 Andy Roddick.
In the latest episode of his podcast Served with Andy Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion targeted the ATP calendar. He blamed it for forcing players to move from one tournament to another, traveling in different countries, without getting required rest for the body.
In recent times, the ATP Tour decided that Masters 1000 tournaments will be played across 2 weeks rather than the previous 10 days format. On top of that, Jannik Sinner had put himself through a rigorous physical routine to get in shape for bigger tournaments. He resorted to heavy weightlifting and muscle-building, to get fitter before winning the Australian Open.
While such a training regimen was to reduce the increased number of injuries he used to have, it has now backfired. Roddick believes that this regimen combined with barely any time for physical rest, led to this outcome for Sinner.
The American star also brought in Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal to make his point. He was quoted as saying n his podcast –
“Sinner, this week got hurt. He aggravated his hip doing full gym workouts during Madrid cause there is no other time for him to do it. The guy wants to be number 1 in the world.
“To be number 1 in the world, if you’re not Federer and Novak, you have to play tournaments. You have to run up the scoreboards. Volume math and results. That’s how you do it.
“Not everyone in Novak and can win 3 out of 4 Grand Slams in a year to be ranked 1. That’s not like a realistic thing, especially when you are trying to get there for the first time. You have to hustle.
“Even Roger, even Novak, even Rafa played a sh*tload of events to get to number 1 in the world. Sinner has to play these Masters 1000s, Alcaraz has to play these Masters 1000s.
“The fact that Sinner feels the need to do full gym workout during a tournament, to the point of intensity where you’re hurting your hip. It’s just tough, but it sucks. It’s cause I know they have to do it. You have to, you have to do the work but also there’s a fine line that you have to play matches. Then you probably shouldn’t be doing both in the same week. There is a lot of stress,” Roddick added.
The American empathized with Jannik Sinner and believes that he has a lot of thinking to do before he is officially crowned as the best men’s tennis player in the world.
Jannik Sinner could become a good case study for players to be careful going ahead as they too are affected because of the calendar and risk injuries due to training too hard.
Jannik Sinner Not the Only One Suffering From Too Much Tennis
Along with his coach Darren Cahill and fitness coach Umberto Ferrera, Jannik Sinner had turned his training routine around completely. After injuries plagued him in 2021 and 2022, Sinner realized he needed to change something.
Taking a leaf out of a Formula 1 driver’s training schedule, Sinner does squats, deadlifts, planks, etc. All of it was to improve the Italian player’s endurance and muscular strength. His mental toughness is also a result of following F1 drivers’ careers very carefully.
Coming to the 2-week ATP Masters schedule, many before Andy Roddick has criticized the same. Alexander Zverev, in his latest press conference before the Italian Open 2024, said that the format might be good for players ranked between 50 and 100.
But it’s not good for the top 10 players (Zverev’s rank is 5th at present). He believes that they barely get enough time to rest in between.
Andrey Rublev, the winner of the Madrid Open 2024, also criticized the gruelling schedule. He believes that it’s extremely jarring mentally, and the Masters format allows players less time to recover.
Rublev says the new Masters format means players have less time to recover & it’s tough mentally ‘Sometimes they’re taking decisions without asking anyone’
“Zverev yesterday said that this new format of Masters 1000 is good for players from the 50th position ranking to 100, but… pic.twitter.com/syawRleEl8
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) May 1, 2024
Therefore, these rising voices of disdain towards two-week Masters tournaments are everywhere and are reducing the quality of tennis. With Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz missing out on the Italian Open and Daniil Medvedev coming off an injury, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal’s star power could decide the fate of the ATP event this year.
