Taylor Fritz says what everyone is thinking about major tennis issue after Alex Eala suffers in final
The ATP and WTA tennis tours have gruelling schedules like few others in sport - a fact which was highlighted by Alex Eala during the Hong Kong Open final on Sunday.
Top players regularly find themselves suffering injuries or having to take enforced breaks for recovery due to the rigours of tournaments.
Now, after Eala found herself ailing in her latest WTA final, a recent point made by Taylor Fritz has real resonance.
What happened to Alex Eala during Hong Kong Open final
Eala started her Hong Kong Open final on Sunday against Claire Liu well, taking an early break, but then required treatment on her right knee when trailing 4-3.
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From that point onwards she didn’t win another game, falling 6-3 6-0 to the American.
This was Eala’s 70th match of the year, being played in her 24th tournament.
After winning her first WTA tour-level singles title at August’s Washington Open, 21-year-old Eala has had a breakout year, reaching a career-high ranking of 17.
However, she has struggled for form prior to Hong Kong, with some suggesting that was a sign of the workload put on players.
Carlos Alcaraz has previously said of the demands put on tennis players: "Probably they are going to kill us in some way. Right now a lot of good players are going to miss a lot of tournaments because of that [injury]."
Taylor Fritz gives his verdict on relentless tennis tour schedule
Now, US male star Taylor Fritz has weighed in with what he thinks about the almost-non stop schedule tennis players face.
“It’s just so year-round, round-the-clock,” he said on Kate Mackz’s The Running Interview Show when asked what was the biggest misunderstanding about tennis.
“We have a one month off-season and, if you take that off-season off - which nobody does - you'd be showing up without practice at the beginning of the year.
“So, essentially, you can only really take like, max, two weeks off, and then you have to be training.
“So we essentially get no time off ever. You are - literally - living out of suitcase.”
The super-tough demands of top-level tennis
Players have long complained of the unrelenting tennis schedule, but the issue is coming into sharper focus with recent long term injuries to Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and others.
Currently, top-30 ATP players are required to contest all four Grand Slams, eight of the nine ATP 1000 events (Monte Carlo is optional), at least four ATP 500 events and the ATP finals if they end the year in the top 8.
The requirements for WTA players are similar, with the difference being 10 mandatory WTA 1000 events.
Now, for 2028, the ATP (but not the WTA) says no events will be mandatory in a bid to ease the load on players, with entry into tournaments instead being heavily incentivised through a bigger prize money pool.
With players such as Eala feeling the heat, it’s possible the WTA could soon make similar moves.
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Topics: Alex Eala, Tennis, Carlos Alcaraz
James Elson
