"It's a joke!": The major problem tennis is facing ahead of the Australian Open

The relentless grind of professional tennis is under the microscope as players gear up for the 2025 Australian Open. With a packed calendar and minimal off-season, a number of the tournament's stars are voicing concerns about the unsustainable demands placed on their bodies and minds.

Professional tennis is unlike any other sport in its demands. The rolling ranking system forces players to continuously compete for points throughout the year. Missing tournaments means sacrificing opportunities to maintain or improve rankings, which determine entry into the sport's most lucrative events.

Australian Jordan Thompson, competing at the Brisbane International, was blunt about the issue, calling the length of the tennis off-season "a joke," as ABC reported. His frustration is shared by Nick Kyrgios, who highlighted the personal toll the schedule takes, especially for players based in Australia.

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"The tour is ridiculous compared to any other sport," Kyrgios said, per ABC. "If you’re from Australia, you don’t see your family or friends for six, seven, eight months if you’re playing a full schedule. It’s a tough sport."

The break between the 2024 season and the start of 2025 was alarmingly short. French journalist Bastien Fachan noted on X that only four days separated the final point of the NextGen ATP Finals in Jeddah and the first ball of the United Cup in Perth. Such a tight turnaround leaves players little time to rest, recover, and prepare for the new season.

Players like Thompson, who played 63 matches across 25 tournaments in 2024, endure extensive travel and back-to-back events. Thompson alone logged over 81,000 kilometers last season – equivalent to circling the globe twice. It’s no wonder he described the situation as "literally getting three weeks off" after Davis Cup obligations.

Even the world’s best aren’t immune to the strain. Alexander Zverev played a staggering 88 matches in 2024, as ABC highlighted, leading to concerns about burnout. Kyrgios pointed out how the demands of the schedule are impacting players’ mental health. "Look at guys like [Daniil] Medvedev last season, returning with the other side of his racquet," he said. "The season is just way too long."

The relentless schedule doesn’t just wear players down physically; it also leaves them mentally drained. The constant need to refocus for the next event, often with little recovery time, is a challenge. For example, American Ashlyn Krueger played a match in Brisbane on January 2 and was on again court in Adelaide – a three-hour flight away – the next day.

Jamie Murray, a seven-time major winner, described the current schedule as "a disaster". He warned that the strain of constant travel and extended tournaments risks shortening players’ careers.

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"But my concern is that these guys, in four or five years, they've got hundreds of millions in the bank and they're like, 'Why am I playing tennis? Why am I on the road like 250, 300 days a year? I don't need to do that, it's killing my body, I never see my family, I don't need to do that anymore, so I'm just gonna walk away.'"

The financial structure of professional tennis adds another layer of difficulty. While stars like Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz earn millions through prize money and endorsements, lower-ranked players struggle to make ends meet. The gap between the sport’s elite and those fighting to break through is stark, creating a system where only a few can afford to pick and choose their schedules.

Djokovic – chief among the players who have been able to be picky with his schedule – highlighted this inequality, noting that tennis players earn a far smaller share of revenue compared to athletes in other sports. "The pie split between governing bodies and players in American sports like the NFL or NBA is around 50 percent. Ours is way lower than that," he said, as reported by The Tennis Gazette.

The current state of tennis scheduling is unsustainable, players such as Kyrgios are arguing. The physical demands, mental toll, and financial inequities are pushing players, especially emerging players, to their limits, with many fearing burnout or premature retirement.

The Australian Open, as the season's first Grand Slam, sets the tone for the rest of the year in terms of schedule. If the players coming out of the first major tournament of the year feeling burnt out due to the demands of playing up to six other tournaments either side of it, it does not bode well for the rest of the tennis year. But will anything change? We won't hold our breaths.

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