No. 5 seed and defending champ Andy Roddick lost to No. 143 ranked Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot in the second round of the China Open on Tuesday: 2-6, 4-6. After the match, the American joined the late-season chorus of jaded, worn out tennis players (and tennis bloggers) who wish that the season would just be over, already!
Here’s Roddick’s take in his post-match presser:
Q: Serena Williams was just talking about how this is a tough time of the year when your body starts breaking down and things. What do you do to try to keep going tournament to tournament?
RODDICK: Serena Williams, their tour championships are in two weeks, so that’s good. Ours are not. It is, it’s a tough task. I certainly have not been shy about saying that at a certain point, something’s gotta give. There’s got to be some time to get yourself right physically and mentally. Right now, that’s just not the case, and you’re seeing it with Roger and Murray being out in Tokyo and Rafael had a four-month deal. Everyone acts surprised when that happens, but it really, I think the fact that we play all the time and all the sudden something happens, it’s really not that surprising.
Roddick, like most of the top players, has been a vocal proponent of a shortened schedule. I think he’s right on the money with this comment: “It would benefit (tennis) to not be so short-sighted and give people time to miss the sport.”
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Popular sports like American football and baseball have off seasons running from 4 – 6 months – I’m including mandatory training as part of the off-season, since tennis players must train, too - which gives the fans and the players plenty of time to crave the competition. What do you think?
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