His post on X reads: “Injuries are going to happen… we are pushing our bodies to do things they aren’t supposed to in elite sport. We have so many incredible younger guys on the tour right now, and I’m proud to be a part of that; however, the tour and the calendar have to adapt if any of us are gonna achieve some sort of longevity…”
Fritz replied: “Facts, also seeing more injuries and burnout now than ever before because balls, courts, and conditions have slowed down a lot, making the weekly grind even more physically demanding and tough on the body.” The American then went on to debate the issue with several users of the social media platform.
Djokovic called for collective action from the players if they want to see change during a pre-tournament press conference at the Shanghai Masters. “In the end, as a player and as someone who has been playing on the highest level for more than 20 years, I can say that the players are not united enough, and players are not participating enough when they should be,” he said.
“So they make the comments, and they complain, and then they go away, and then if something is wrong, after a certain amount of time, they come back again. But you have to invest the time.
“You have to invest the energy yourself, not your agent, not your team, not your parents, not anybody, yourself. To dedicate yourself to understanding how the system works, to understand what things can be done, to be reversed, to be improved in terms of the players’ interest.”
“And for that to happen, you need the top players, particularly to sit down, roll up their sleeves, and really care a bit more about participating and understanding all the whole topics, so to say, because going out in the media and talking about this and that, OK, it might stir up some energy or some attention, but in the end of the day, it’s not gonna change. Nothing is gonna change, you know? I know it from my personal experience, trust me, so, yeah, it’s quite a complex topic.”