Despite injury toll, top seeds warn against change

NEW YORK: Top-ranked Rafael Nadal and third-ranked Roger Federer sounded alarms against changes in tennis even as Britain’s second-ranked Andy Murray joined the injured list at the US Open.

Murray withdrew with a sore left hip from the year’s final Grand Slam that starts tomorrow on the New York hardcourts, joining 2016 winner Stan Wawrinka, Novak Djokovic, 2014 runner-up Kei Nishikori and Canada’s Milos Raonic among the injured.

“Don’t forget we’re not 21 anymore,” said Nadal. Stan is 32. I am 31 and a half almost. Novak is 30. Andy is 30. We are not that young anymore, so it’s normal that we had some things. That’s coincidence that it happens at the same time.”

“Don’t forget that Sampras probably at my age was not playing tennis, Borg was not playing tennis. A lot of great players were not playing tennis at our age,” Nadal said. “Is normal that we are still playing, we try our best, but it’s normal that we have more troubles during this.”

Asked if the schedule needed to be trimmed to ease the workload, 19-time Grand Slam champion Federer took that idea to extremes.

“You can cut down the season by half and then if there is an injury we cut it down half again, and at the end we play two months of the year eventually and we’ll still be injured because now we’re not playing enough,” Federer said. “The guys who are hurt lately, it’s mostly because they are 30-plus. Wear and tear just takes its toll. Maybe some players have just had enough of playing hurt and told just themselves, ‘When I come back I just want to be 100 percent.’

MURRAY WITHDREW WITH A SORE LEFT HIP JOINING WAWRINKA, DJOKOVIC, NISHIKORI AND RAONIC AMONG THE INJURED.