“They are going to kill us in some way,” said Carlos Alcaraz of the tennis schedule last year. Fast forward to 2025, and the scenes at the Shanghai Masters proved the 22-year-old’s point, as hyperbolic as it was. Icons like 24-time slam king Novak Djokovic and World No. 2 Jannik Sinner struggled amid the scorching heat and unbearable humidity. Sinner, in fact, was forced out due to cramps due to the adverse weather. And let’s not talk about the number of MTOs Djokovic took to survive the force of nature in Shanghai . It all seems to have added up lately, as more players keep coming forward with their unfiltered opinions.

What happened in Shanghai was a clear case of burnout and fatigue. Djokovic didn’t complain much in Shanghai; he did underline that for change to happen, it needs

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