Djokovic all set for tennis return at Shanghai Masters

Novak Djokovic said Thursday that talk about reorganising the tennis schedule has been going on for at least 15 years and his fellow players are “still not united enough”.

The amount of tennis the elite play was thrust back into the spotlight this week after world number one Carlos Alcaraz pulled out of the Shanghai Masters to rest and there were a raft of injuries at the China Open.

Alcaraz and fellow Grand Slam champions Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek all took aim at the tennis calendar this week and railed against the number of tournaments they play.

Speaking in Shanghai, where Djokovic lost in last year’s final to Jannik Sinner, the Serbian great said it was “very complex” and similar complaints had been going on for years but to no avail.

“More than 15 years ago I was talking about us needing to come together and reorganise the schedule,” said the 38-year-old, a 24-time Grand Slam champion.

“It’s an individual sport… at the end of the day you can still make choices,” he said.

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However, “there are people who just don’t want to change things in our sport for the better… when it comes to the players’ welfare”, he added.

Players are “still not united enough”, or investing enough time and energy into trying to make change happen, he said.

“You need the top players, particularly, to sit down and roll up their sleeves and really care,” he added.

The Serb starts his Shanghai campaign on Friday against Croatia’s Marin Cilic, ranked 94th.

Djokovic is back in action after a four-week break, having cut back the number of tournaments he plays in order to extend his time at the top.

He last appeared at the US Open in early September, when he was knocked out in the semi-finals by Alcaraz.