Tennis's endless season tests limits of body and mind
As courts fall quiet after a marathon year, players face a calendar that barely pauses, turning hard-won victories into extended burdens and rest into a rare commodity that shapes every forehand and footstep.
The 2024 professional tennis season closed on December 22, with Joao Fonseca defeating Learner Tien for the ATP Next Gen Finals title in Saudi Arabia. Five days later, the 2025 campaign began at the United Cup in Australia, drawing Fonseca back to the court on December 30 for a local tournament while Tien competed in Hong Kong. This tight overlap left players with scant time to reset, their bodies still echoing the echoes of baseline rallies and net rushes from the year before, as jet lag and muscle memory clashed in the humid Australian air.
Burnout creeps into every rally
Jordan Thompson, the 2024 US Open doubles champion, captured the frustration early. The brief gap before the Next Gen Finals for young prospects like Fonseca and Tien dissolved into mere days of recovery, much like the month separating the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup from the United Cup, with WTA and ATP Finals ending in mid-November. Players, chasing deep runs that demand precise inside-out forehands and crosscourt defenses, find their focus fraying under the weight of constant travel, where one late-night flight can dull the edge on a serve-volley approach.
Alex de Minaur pointed to burnout for his early French Open exit, the red clay amplifying every strained step. Iga Swiatek criticized the demands of the super intense schedule that kept her from a Billie Jean King Cup qualifier in spring, her voice reflecting the mental fog that turns a sharp one–two punch into hesitant lobs. During one day at the China Open in late September, five of the 12 scheduled matches ended in midmatch retirements, opponents collapsing mid-point as the heat mirrored the inner toll of endless serves and returns.
"Truth is, I've hit a wall and can't continue. I need a break. A break from the monotonous daily grind of life on the tour, the suitcases, the results, the pressure, the same faces (sorry, girls), everything that comes with this life," Daria Kasatkina posted on social media. "The schedule is too much, mentally and emotionally I am at a breaking point and sadly, I am not alone."
Frances Tiafoe, Danielle Collins, Jack Draper, and Kasatkina all ended their seasons ahead of schedule, injuries mingling with mental fatigue that sapped their ability to sustain aggressive down-the-line winners. The relentless pace, with its globetrotting from hard courts to grass, erodes the psychological edge needed for high-stakes tiebreaks, leaving players to question if another deep run is worth the mounting exhaustion. As 2025 winds down, this cycle persists, with athletes eyeing 2026 through a lens of wary anticipation.
Success extends the grind
Taylor Fritz enjoyed a breakout 2024, reaching quarterfinals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, his first major final at the US Open, two ATP titles, four finals including the ATP Finals, an Olympic doubles bronze with Tommy Paul, and a career-high No. 4 ranking. Yet his achievements prolonged the season via invites to the year-end championships and Davis Cup, shrinking his offseason to three weeks before the 2025 start. Returning home late November, he departed for Australia on December 21, balancing vital training with fleeting downtime amid the post-match haze.
"There's no offseason, and if you're a top player, you actually get even less of an offseason," Fritz told ESPN in the spring. For top talents, late-season triumphs demand more court time, turning tactical tweaks—like refining an inside-in backhand—into rushed sessions that risk form under fatigue. The period becomes crucial for technical changes or coaching shifts, but rest often yields to preparation, as players weigh recovery against the pull of home after months of hotel gyms and foreign crowds.
Australians like Thompson cherish the short home spell for beach recovery and family, yet fitness demands clip even that. "For me when I come back to Australia, I just want to get down to the beach, chill out, take two weeks off the rackets," he said at the 2025 season's outset. "But I've still got to do a lot of physical stuff to stay in shape. It is literally three weeks before you're back into tournament mode. You can't afford to have any slip-ups with that amount of time off physically."
Novak Djokovic, at 38, skipped ATP events from June through August, prioritizing majors for a potential record 25th Grand Slam title and family time, his over $190 million in prize money easing such selectivity. But most face tour mandates: ATP players require all four majors, eight Masters 1000s, and five 500s including one post-US Open; WTA demands Slams, 10 1000s, and six 500s, with seven 1000s now lasting 12 days. Exemptions for injury exist, but skipping WTA 500s deducts points, as seen with Aryna Sabalenka, Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Amanda Anisimova, and Madison Keys at 2024's end, Swiatek dropping to No. 2.
Swiatek, after Camila Osorio retired post-first set at the China Open, blamed the schedule's squeeze. "WTA, with all these mandatory rules, they made this pretty crazy for us," she told reporters. "I don't think any top player will actually be able to achieve this, playing the six 500 tournaments. It's just impossible to squeeze it in the schedule. I think we have to be smart about it, not really, unfortunately, care about the rules and just think what's healthy for us. Yeah, it's tough."
Anne Keothavong, former player and Great Britain's Billie Jean King Cup captain, linked extensions to prize money parity in a Sky Sports interview. Gauff acknowledged the business case but stressed health at the China Open. "I guess on a business standpoint, it can kind of make sense, but on a player-health standpoint, I don't really agree with it," she said. "I've basically played as much tennis as I possibly can and it's impossible to keep up with the six 500s. It's just impossible."
Swiatek led with 80 matches in 2025, Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina at 76, Gauff 65, Anisimova 63, Keys 53—tallies that highlight how mandates force volume, disrupting recovery and forcing conservative play to avoid breakdowns in key moments like third-set deciders.
Reform faces packed calendar
The Shanghai Masters in October exposed the strain: Carlos Alcaraz withdrew pre-tournament with a left ankle injury, Jannik Sinner cramped out in the third round, Djokovic vomited in his round of 32 and took back treatment en route to a semifinal loss. The final saw Valentin Vacherot, ranked No. 204 and ninth qualifying alternate, face cousin Arthur Rinderknech at No. 40—a heartfelt upset, but far from the elite baseline duels expected in the humid roar of the stadium. Last month, the ATP announced it would be adding another Masters 1000 as early as 2028 in Saudi Arabia, raising the total to 10 with nine mandatory, Monte Carlo optional, its timing and WTA involvement unclear amid the already dense slate.
The French Open, Australian Open, and US Open added Sunday starts, extending main draws despite resistance; Jessica Pegula, No. 6, voiced doubts at the US Open. Brad Stine, Tommy Paul's coach since 1990 with Jim Courier, advocates dropping mandatory tags and adding rest weeks post-Slams, while urging players to skip for health over points paranoia. He notes many join offseason exhibitions despite shorter-season pleas. "No one's required to play. You can take time off whenever you want to take time off," he told ESPN. "There doesn't seem to be a shortage of players looking to play those events. Some of them are the players that are proponents of a shorter season. 'We need more breaks, we need a shorter season.' But then when they're given an opportunity to have time off, they opt to play more events."
Alcaraz, pushing for brevity, played the October Six Kings Slam and plans December exhibitions in New York, Newark, and Miami, defending them as low-stakes fun. "It's a different format, different situation playing exhibitions than the official tournaments, 15, 16 days in row, having such a high focus and demanding physically," he said at the event. "We're just having fun for one or two days and playing some tennis, and that's great, and why we choose the exhibitions. I understand [the criticism], but sometimes people don't understand us, our opinions. It's not really demanding mentally [compared with] when we're having such long events like two weeks or two-and-a-half weeks."
Fritz demands shortening, deeming it too much, but sees no change forthcoming despite voices from him, Alcaraz, and Alexander Zverev. Shifting finals post-US Open would displace 12 WTA and 13 ATP events, plus Billie Jean King Cup, Davis Cup, and Laver Cup, all tied to licensing fees and multi-year pacts. The Billie Jean King Cup finals shifted to September for WTA offseason extension, in Shenzhen for Asian swing flow, though 2026 qualifiers run November 14 through 16 with 21 countries; Davis Cup holds November 18-23 in Bologna.
In 2024, the four Grand Slams engaged in early conversations for a Premier Tour of majors, about 10 events, and year-end final. The WTA and ATP proposed a restructure in spring 2025 per The Athletic, with four majors, 10 1000s, 17 WTA and 16 ATP 500s, reduced 250s via buybacks, cutting total events from 118 to 75, but Slams rejected it over board setup. Andy Roddick suggested on his Served Podcast moving fall 250s like Nordic Open and European Open post-World Tour Finals for a new-year wraparound. "Why can't [ATP 250-level tournaments like the Nordic Open and the European Open] exist after World Tour finals?" he asked. "Why can't we have a wraparound season where these [250s] go for a month [leading into the new year]? [If] more players want more opportunities, great, then go do it. And then the top players, if they choose to play Six Kings or some other exhibition, then they can't complain about the schedule being too long anymore because it's not wedged into the middle of the year. [As it is] they have to fill some space. They have to play something before World Tour Finals. If it ends in the back half of November, something's got to give. We have to have a goal to be done by Nov. 1."
The WTA prioritizes welfare, noting 2024 player-voted enhancements: $400 million compensation rise over years, more tiered opportunities, top-player guidelines for fields, fan ease, under ongoing review via council and board. The ATP directed ESPN to an August interview with chairman Andrea Gaudenzi, who called the calendar complex, aiming for longer offseasons while balancing all players' varied paths. Djokovic, criticizing for over 15 years through council and his 2020 PTPA founding, deems it complex but blames player disunity ahead of Shanghai. "In the end, as a player and someone that has been playing on the highest level for more than 20 years, I can say that the players are not united enough," he said. "Players are not participating enough when they should be. So they make the comments and they complain, and then they go away ... But you have to invest the time, you have to invest energy yourself ... to understand how the system works, to understand what are the things that can be done to be reversed, to be improved in terms of the players' interest. Because going out in the media and talking about this and that, OK, it might stir up some energy or some attention. But at the end of the day, nothing is going to change, you know? I know it from my personal experience, trust me." As tensions simmer, the tour's future hinges on bridging divides, potentially easing the path for sustained brilliance on court.
