Murray Fears Consequences Of Heavy Calendar Just Before Tour Finals

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 30th October 2012

Murray Fears Consequences Of Heavy Calendar Just Before Tour Finals

epa03393017 Andy Murray of Great Britain hits a return to Novak Djokovic of Serbia during the men's final match on the fifteenth day of the 2012 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 10 September 2012. The US Open has been extended a day for the fifth straight year due to weather. EPA/JASON SZENES |

Andy Murray has warned that back-loading the ATP calendar and foregoing the rest week prior to the start of the World Tour Finals can only lead to trouble, based mainly on injury pullouts as player refuse to risk themselves prior to the year-end wrapup event.

If it’s bad now with the event still being staged in London , it will only get worse once the ATP packs its tents as it surely will and heads off to a more lucrative deal for the eight-man event.

Murray , losing finalist in Shanghai to Paris second seed Novak Djokovic, said now that he feels good he hopes to go all-out at the Bercy arena with the World Tour Finals starting in a week. That’s after he stranded Basel official last week with his late pullout.

Now it’s the turn of Paris Masters boss Guy Forget to feel the pain, with Roger Federer out to rest before London ‘s immediate start next Monday.

Murray said that if London ‘s contract to stage the World Tour Finals is not renewed after 2013, another, more distant, venue might face ever greater problems of player participation.

“With the way the schedule is just now, I think when the Tour Finals moves from London to a different continent I think there are big issues potentially with that,” said Murray .

“Guys (who could qualify seven, eight or nine) are not going to fly all the way to a different continent if there is a chance you’re not going to get in (the year-end event), not find out until Sunday probably and potentially have to play on Tuesday.

“It’s probably going to affect a couple of the tournaments, but that’s what happens when you take a couple of weeks off the tour. It’s never going to be perfect.

” Basel , Valencia (the same week), and Paris and having a week off and then playing the Tour Finals is fine. But it’s going to be tough to play all three back to back with obviously most guys’ main priority wanting to be fresh for the finals.”