Barker bites /Former champion says men’s schedule too gruelling

Former grand slam champion Sue Barker believes tennis needs to curtail its gruelling schedule to prevent regular injuries to top players.

British No 1 Andy Murray endured an injury-plagued 2017 due to a hip problem, while Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have each withdrawn from tournaments due to fitness injuries and Stan Wawrinka has delayed his comeback following knee surgery.

With the start of the Australian Open just a couple of weeks away, Barker thinks it is impossible for players to compete in all of the events currently in the sport’s calendar and suggested they may start cherry-picking which tournaments to enter, as world No 1 Nadal and 19-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer did this year.

“The men’s game, and indeed in the women’s game, have both got to look at themselves for different reasons,” the 1976 French Open champion told BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme.

“With Djokovic pulling out of that tournament in Abu Dhabi and Nadal’s pulled out of Brisbane, Wawrinka’s postponed his recovery, you know it’s really worrying times and they keep adding on more tournaments.

“These players are playing at such a level now, physically,

0 Caroline Garcia was forced to withdraw from her match against compatriot Alize Cornet yesterday after suffering back pain. that I just don’t think it’s possible for them to do the calendars that they’re doing.

“All of them are now talking about managing their career and that’s not good for the game. I think the game’s got to have a serious look at itself.

“Federer’s proved and Nadal proved that they both took a lot of time off last year, they came back and they won all the grand slams in 2017. All the players will be looking at that and thinking I have to manage my body now.”

Former world No 1 Murray missed almost the whole of the second half of this year due to his injury. He had not played since the Wimbledon quarter-finals in July before stepping in to replace Djokovic – who has an elbow issue – in a one-set exhibition match in Abu Dhabi on Friday, which ended in a 6-2 defeat to Roberto Bautista Agut.

Asked whether three-time Grand Slam winner Murray can play at the level to win another, Barker replied: “Only he knows how tough it is to play with that injury. He’ll get himself back, look he was rusty against Bautista Agut.

“The good thing, he’s saying he’s physically better at this stage than last year going into the Australian Open so we can take some hope from that.”

Coincidentally, Caroline Garcia was forced to withdraw from her opening match at the Brisbane International yesterday with lower back pain. The Frenchwoman now finds herself in a race to be fit for the Australian Open.