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Poor baby. Let's all feel really bad for the poor guy. Life's rough.

He's right, but the money prevents the tour from considering it. The players would have to get together on this to create change. www.therantguy.com

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I have to agree with Nadal....they play a really lengthy season with long travel requirments. No wonder these guys peak and fade so early in age.

Good lord... from January 1st to December 5th?
That's an incredibly long season. Kind of gives new meaning to Federer staying number 1 for so long. Wow.

If the schedule's been this way for a while.. i think it should remain put. Everybody has the same schedule... which makes it more about conditioning. At least it's not a contact sport where a season this long would be a much greater risk for injury. Even shortening the season by 1-2 months wouldn't really make much difference. In tennis.. if the player's going to get injured, i doubt it would be because of those extra 2 months.

It would be difficult to persuade the ATF (who may very well be controlled by power brokers whose primary interest is big $$$) to cut tournaments. It might be much easier if players can collectively lobby the ATF; to revise the points system so that players can skip a couple of non grand slam tournaments, without being penalised. It would be interesting to get Federer's take on this. I would like to see exactly how many points are awarded & taken away from players for each tournament.

QUOTE(#4):

Originally posted 03:07 PM ET  08.28 by Al_Cheese

I have to agree with Nadal....they play a really lengthy season with long travel requirments. No wonder these guys peak and fade so early in age.

I can sympathize Nadal with his 100% effort on the court but he actually has choices
of participate in as many tournaments as he can. Even at those mandatory tournaments,
there is always excuse of injury. The problem is that these guys are cash cows; they
want to make as much money as they can. I'd rather see these top guys [Nadal, Djokovics]
play less low-level tournaments like the Williams sisters.

COME ON!!!! IF HE CAN??T DECIDE WHERE HE PLAYS IT IS NOT A PROBLEM OF THE ATP TOUR.
Nadal is in a position where he can chose where to play and where he is not..

If he chooses more events diferent to Grand Slams- Masters 1000, HIS STORY COULD BE VERY DIFFERENT. but if he insists to play : DOHA- ROTTERDAM- DUBAI ( not this year because he was allready injuried)- BARCELONA + GRAND SLAMS+ MASTERS 1000= KNEE PROBLEMS.

I gotta agree with non-particular...the top guys have to play less and we already see them doing that now...even the Tsongas and Del Potro's don't play 250 point tournaments. The Williams sisters were heavily criticized for "not being committed" and playing a limited schedule. They had it figured out which is why they are still at the top 10 years later. They have to find a way not to dock so many points for missing a tournament. The two sides need to agree to a certain number of tournaments and the rest are not mandatory. Something like, Grand Slams and 7 of 9 Masters are mandatory and the rest are not.

A guy like Davydenko likes it the way it is...he loves the money...

First, kudos for the point about how much Nadal's ability to stay at the top for even a single year says about Federer's long reign.

Second, what a big baby. He overinflates his ranking by playing 3 clay court tournaments a week during the clay court season and then wants to complain when his body predicatably breaks down as a result? You want to limit how much players can play because you can't keep up? Fine. Then go back and retroactively impose the points limits to your historical caly season points and you will find you never sniffed the top ranking. What's good for the goose is good for the gander - you can't count more than a small number of clay points since clay is such a tiny portion of the tennis world.

or, nadal could learn how to play a style of tennis that doesn't kill his body like federer does. after all, federer doesn't seem to have the injury issues of the other and he plays his fair share of those tournaments. just an idea.

Please!! Its not like he plays every week and alot of people don't even realize that the tennis season is that long.. WHY?? because nobody cares about tennis in this country.. even the US Open last year had a less than enthusiastic crowd

who cares

Rafa: Do what Federer does. He takes time off every year. You don't have to play in all the tournaments. Your game is more physical than most players. Don't play when injured. Between the majors you should play only to keep sharp.

QUOTE(#7):

Originally posted 10:58 PM ET  08.28 by non-particular

I can sympathize Nadal with his 100% effort on the court but he actually has choicesof participate in as many tournaments as he can. Even at those mandatory tournaments,there is always excuse of injury. The problem is that these guys are cash cows; theywant to make as much money as they can. I'd rather see these top guys [Nadal, Djokovics]play less low-level tournaments like the Williams sisters.

He has the same right as the Williams sisters. Just pace yourself.

Why do people who don't care about tennis make comments on here??