It won’t be wrong to say that the tennis calendar has gotten incredibly demanding for the players in recent years. More tournaments mean more fatigue and injuries. For context, 17 players (nine men and eight women) had pulled out of the recently concluded HSBC Championships, and the majority of these withdrawals had been made due to fitness issues. With Wimbledon around the corner, former British No. 1 John Lloyd feels that a big change needs to be made to the format of Grand Slams.

Lloyd has argued that the best-of-five set matches physically affect the male players as much as the grueling calendar. Thus, he’s proposed reducing sets to best-of-three for the men’s draw at Grand Slams.

“In my opinion, the calendar is awful,” he said in an interview with Tennis365. “It has been for years. I think Grand Slams should be best of three sets anyway. I’ve said that for years. All the way through, or certainly from the quarter-finals. I’ve been saying this for years.”

John Lloyd warned that the number of injuries will only increase from here if no changes are made to the best-of-five-set format at Grand Slams.

“We are going to see more and more injuries, mark my words, unless something is changed. It will happen; there will be more injuries. The best of five sets for four Slams, it’s not just the playing at the tournament that does it, it’s the preparation,” he added.

The format is a tradition that has been followed by male players since the inaugural Wimbledon edition that was held all the way back in 1877. Unlike the other tournaments on the calendar, the players have always been required to win three sets in order to win a match at the Grand Slams.

While Wimbledon has maintained this long-standing tradition for almost 150 years now, the other three Slams had decided to change things up during the mid-1970s. The Australian, French, and US Opens had decided to use the best-of-three format for the male players during the early rounds of the tournament. This step was taken to reduce player fatigue.

However, fans rejected the format then. After experimenting for a few years, the three Slams had reverted to the best-of-five format by 1979. No changes have been made to the format ever since, and the male players have gotten used to it once again. However, today’s injury crisis may force reconsideration.

Winning a Grand Slam takes a lot for the players, not just because of the format, but also because they have to play more matches than they usually do at regular tour events. To win a major, players have to go through seven matches, which means they play at least one more match than they would play in most of the events on the calendar.

While both the fans and players have gotten used to the Grand Slam format, it is one of the factors behind the increase in player fatigue over the years. As a result, more and more players have started suffering serious injuries, and withdrawals have become quite common at every major. This pattern has continued at the upcoming edition of Wimbledon.

Carlos Alcaraz, Victoria Mboko, and more pull out from Wimbledon

Carlos Alcaraz is the biggest name missing from SW19 this year. He has been out of action since April due to a wrist injury that had seen him withdraw from the French Open as well. Having reached the final at Wimbledon last season, the Spaniard is set to lose a massive 1,300 points in the rankings for missing the upcoming edition.

World No. 15, Lorenzo Musetti will also not be in action at the Championships this year. The Italian hasn’t competed for over a month now due to the rectus femoris injury that he sustained in Rome. He wasn’t able to recover in time for Wimbledon.

Another notable player to miss the tournament will be Valentin Vacherot. The Monegasque had to withdraw from the tournament due to a left-foot injury. The same setback had also forced him to pull out of the Roland Garros last month.

On the WTA side, Victoria Mboko is the highest-ranked player to withdraw from Wimbledon so far. She had recently sustained a knee injury following a nasty fall during her singles clash against Karolina Pliskova at the HSBC Championships. As a result, she had to withdraw from the remainder of the grass swing.

Additionally, World No. 30 Hailey Baptiste will also not be a part of SW19 this season. She had withdrawn from the Grand Slam after suffering an ACL tear at the French Open and is expected to remain out of action for the coming months as well.