It's mid-October and the tennis tour is making its fall Asian swing, which must mean it's time for players to start complaining about their long, oppressive season. Rafael Nadal, Tommy Robredo and Andy Roddick chimed in this week.

``I think it's ridiculous to think that you have a professional sport that doesn't have a legitimate offseason to rest, get healthy, and then train,'' said Roddick, who retired from his match against Stanislas Wawrinka in Shanghai, China, on Tuesday because of a knee injury. ``We're finished -- what is it, November 30th? -- and have to be pretty much Grand Slam-ready by January 4th year after year after year after year. And the people who are playing the most, they get added two weeks at the end of the year [for the Masters Final]. I just feel sooner or later common sense has to prevail.''

Said Nadal: ``It's impossible to play the 1st of January and finish 5th of December. No sport can do it, and you play shorter career. It's impossible to be here playing like what I did last five years, playing a lot of matches and being all the time 100 percent without problems.''

Roger Federer (fatigue) and Andy Murray (wrist injury) are skipping the Shanghai tournament, and U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro injured his wrist Wednesday and withdrew.

MANDATORY EVENTS

ATP Tour players are required to play the four Grand Slam events and eight of the nine Masters events, with Monte Carlo being the one optional.

The top players also compete in the year-end Masters Final, and many players compete for their Davis Cup teams.

All told, the top players who reach deep into the second week of most tournaments and play Davis Cup would play approximately 30 to 32 weeks a year, which for most working citizens doesn't seem all that strenuous, especially considering the salaries tennis players earn. But factor in the long plane rides, time-zone changes and physical stress on the body, and tennis players claim they have a legitimate beef.

(Of course, nobody forced Federer and Nadal to sign up for the Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, exhibition at the beginning of January 2010, a high-paying event that requires a long plane ride.)

Adam Helfant, the new CEO of the ATP tour, will meet with players next month in London during the Masters Final to address the scheduling issue. Roddick and Nadal expect changes.

``We've been saying for a long time it's tough to compete 11 months a year, and this is going on my 10th year now, and, you know, we've tried to make our voice heard for a long time,'' Roddick said. ``We end up finishing a little bit later now. I don't think it's coincidental that you see Murray and Roger a little bit hurt now or Rafa missing four months in the middle of the year, maybe some odd results from del Potro and myself last week. I just hope that the shortsightedness doesn't affect the length of careers.''

Tommy Robredo said the answer is not to reduce the number of tournaments but to reduce the number of mandatory events.

``I have a different point of view of most of the players,'' Robredo said. ``I think if we will have tournaments every week, it will be perfect, no? Because then anyone has the chance to play the weeks he wants. The problem now is that we have the obligation to play certain tournaments, and then we have to play the Masters 1000, the Grand Slams, and that's an obligation. Sometimes it's in a time that maybe you would like to rest a little bit.''

DJOKOVIC'S VIEW

The problem is that none of the established tournaments wants to give up its place on the calendar, so players and tournament directors have to reach a compromise. Perhaps a few more tournaments can be played concurrently, allowing more free weeks for players to rest. Novak Djokovic can see both sides of the argument. Not only is he a top player, but his family runs a tournament in Serbia.

``We will work on doing something that is comfortable to both the players and the tournaments,'' Djokovic said. ``The tournaments still understand their job and their obligations better than we understand their job -- and vice versa. But the players now are more united than ever. We have to make a compromise. The bottom line is that you don't want to have injured players. The schedule, in my opinion, is too long, but we have to go step by step and try to solve it.''

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