Thanksgiving is a special time of year. It is an opportunity for people to get together with their families and loved ones and to reflect on all the positive things in life. Yet in the world of sports, Thanksgiving is just another day for athletes to compete making it a sportsman's dream holiday. The NFL, NBA, and NHL all have games on this day, and this year tennis will also be played in London, England November 22-27th where the top 8 men's players will compete to see who is the best in 2009.

So the question of the day: Should the professional tennis season be shortened to give players more of an off-season?

Tennis can be a very demanding game, both physically and mentally. Recently, top players including Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal (both hampered by injuries throughout the year and in the case of Roddick, preventing him from competing in this year's championship tournament), and on the women's side Venus and Serena Williams (also hampered by injuries throughout their careers) have taken issue with the short off-season. One suggestion as to why players suffer more injuries is the speed of the game has increased due to the development in string and racquet technology. This puts additional stress on a player's body and raises the chance of sustaining an injury. The other more obvious reason is that the players do not have enough time to rest and recover from competition due to a short off-season.

 

The top players are obligated to participate in four Grand Slam events during the year, and 8 Masters Series events. The only reason players can avoid playing are due to injury or illness. In each case a doctor's note needs to be presented to the tournament officials to release the player of their obligation. The events start off with the Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia, Jan 19th followed by Indian Wells, USA March 12th, Miami, USA March 25th, Monte-Carlo, Monaco April 17th, Rome, Italy April 27th, Madrid, Spain May 11th, French Open, France May 24th, Wimbledon, U.K June 22nd, Montreal, Canada Aug 8th, Cincinnati, USA Aug 16th , US Open, New York Aug 31st , Shanghai, China Oct 11th ,  and Paris, France Nov 8th.

If you are one of the top players competing in these tournaments and start out from Los Angeles and travel directly between all 13 events you would circumnavigate the world covering 42,796 miles. This figure does not include travel back to their home base between events. The amount of air travel top players have to incur is high and this alone can be very wearing on players.

This year the top five players have played an average of 19.4 tournaments. Novak Djokovic has played the most at 22, followed by Nadal, Federer, and Murray at 18. However, this year Nadal and Murray had to withdraw from tournaments due to injury and Federer pulled out citing fatigue. As for the rest of the top 20 players they played an average of 24.33 tournaments. Both these figures are higher than the compulsory 13 tournaments. If players don't play additional tournaments their individual rankings are harder to establish. The player who played the most tournaments this year in the top 20 was Mikhail Youzhny, ranked 19th with 31 tournaments.

So what can be done? It is obvious that some modification needs to be made to the tournament calendar. Some tournament cities have already announced some modification by aligning the women's and men's calendars. Fewer tournaments might encourage better players to participate in smaller events helping to attract larger crowds at those venues. And with fewer tournament requirements players might be more likely to join their country's Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams more regularly.

Whatever the solution, something must be done. The game is more physical than it has ever been and the strength in depth in both the women's and men's games is at the highest level, meaning more tough matches for players. If we want to see the world's best enjoying long and illustrious careers, the pressure on them must be eased.

Thanks again for all your continued support.

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Matt Copland