Jack Draper told to copy Roger Federer after complaining about brutal tennis schedule
Jack Draper recently claimed the tennis schedule was "mental" and "exhausting".
Roger Federer’s agent has hit back at criticism of the brutal tennis schedule. Players like Jack Draper have blasted the “mental” calendar in recent weeks.
Tony Godsick has now encouraged others to copy Federer’s approach to avoid burnout.
Federer and Godsick co-created the Laver Cup, which is taking place this weekend.
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This year’s Laver Cup comes at the end of an especially busy summer of tennis. After Wimbledon, players quickly rushed to the clay courts of Roland Garros for the Olympics before heading to the hard courts for the North American swing and the US Open.
The Ryder Cup-style team tournament was then hit with three withdrawals as Rafael Nadal, Alex De Minaur and Tommy Paul all pulled out. But Godsick believes there is no problem with the Laver Cup taking up space in a heaving tennis schedule.
“Is there too much tennis? There could be too many other tennis events, per se, but this one is working,” Federer’s agent said on Friday. “We have sold-out crowds. Every player loves to play. We have the biggest captains, the best sponsors.”
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The CEO of the TEAM8 management agency even thinks there could be room for more of the Laver Cup in the diary. And he had a word of advice for players who thought the tennis season had too many tournaments.
Godsick continued: “Everything is working. So the question is: Is there too much Laver Cup? No. I think there is not enough Laver Cup probably.
“The other thing about the calendar, and I think Roger Federer said this a lot: Just because there is a lot of events in the calendar doesn't mean you need to play the entire calendar.
“So, you know, Roger used to build in breaks. Now, maybe he can afford to because he was going deep in a lot of tournaments, but you're free to kind of do what you want as it comes to the schedule. Sure, there is some ranking implications and things like that, but I don't think the calendar is too crowded.”
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His comments come just one week after British No. 1 Draper claimed the schedule was “exhausting”. The 22-year-old told the BBC: “It's a mental calendar. It's my opinion that it's going to be very hard for players of my age to achieve longevity any more.”
He’s not the only one who has issues with the schedule. World No. 1 Iga Swiatek recently hit out at the WTA circuit, with players required to play in all four Grand Slams, 10 WTA 1000 events and six 500-point tournaments.
“I think we have too many tournaments in the season. It’s not going to end well and it makes tennis less fun for us, let’s just say,” she told Sky Sports in August.
