Alex de Minaur wants season shortened as event after event takes its toll at French Open

After tasting second-round defeat at the French Open, an exhausted Alex de Minaur demanded tennis authorities make a big change.

Alex de Minaur joined a growing chorus of tennis stars calling for change to a packed schedule, declaring there’s too much tennis after his defeat left Alexei Popyrin the lone Aussie male in the draw at Roland Garros.

While new Australian Daria Kasatkina continued to fly the flag and marched into the third round, Queenslander Adam Walton also suffered a straight-sets second-round defeat.

After a five-set battle with Alexander Bublik that again cruelled de Minaur’s grand slam dream, the Australian No.1 criticised the “gruelling” schedule that demanded too much of players and said it was “not normal”.
“No-one’s got a solution,” he said after his 2-6 2-6 6-4 6-3 6-2 loss.

“But the solution is simple: you shorten the schedule, right?

Alex de Minaur was feeling the pinch in Paris. Picture: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

“What’s not normal is that for the last three, four years I’ve had two days off after the Davis Cup and I’ve gone straight into pre-season, straight into the new season again,” said de Minaur of the gruelling program that kicked off with the United Cup in December, 33 days after the Davis Cup finals ended.

“Once you start, you don’t finish until November 24, so it’s never-ending. The way it’s structured … I had to deal with that. I’m still dealing with that right now.

“The solution is you shorten because what’s going to happen is players’ careers are going to get shorter and shorter because they’re just going to burn out mentally. There’s just too much tennis.”

De Minaur’s call came after countryman Jordan Thompson described the ATP schedule as “sh*t” and “just a joke” after detailing the injuries he had been playing with.

Daria Kasatkina is into the third round. Picture: Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP

Kasatkina, now playing under the Australian flag after defecting from Russia, easily accounted for local hope Leolia Jeanjean.

She remains the only Australian woman in the draw at Roland Garros and will next play Spanish 10th seed Paula Badosa in the third round.

Walton, who had made it through to the second round at the French Open for the first time, revealed he was also battling an arm injury after his loss to Andrey Rublev.

Originally published as Alex de Minaur wants season shortened as event after event takes its toll at French Open