Need a vacation? Imagine how US Open tennis players feel during their long season

NEW YORK (AP) — Aryna Sabalenka was on a boat. She was lounging by the pool. The reigning U.S. Open champion was anywhere, it seemed, except a tennis court.

When the professional tours moved to North America for the hard-court tournaments ahead of the trip to New York — where the second round wraps up Thursday — the top-ranked Sabalenka instead was on the Greek island of Mykonos.

“It was very important, because the season had been really intense at that point, and I felt like I was really low (on) energy,” said Sabalenka, who skipped an event in Montreal in late July. “I was motivated, of course, but it felt like everything was going really tough. I couldn’t show my best, and the body was really weak. I felt like, ‘OK, I need to take a little break and a little recharge and come back stronger.’”

Many players understand. Their sport’s season is so long, and the offseason so short, that they don’t wait until the end of the year to chill.

Sometimes, they figure, vacation must come during the season.

“Because if not,” Alex de Minaur, an Australian seeded No. 8 at the U.S. Open, said of the grind, “it’s ongoing.”

The tennis calendar is so full that players need in-season vacations

De Minaur’s recent seasons didn’t end until late November because he was playing in the Davis Cup team competition — and the new seasons started in late December.

So de Minaur and his fiancée, British player Katie Boulter, have been getting away from it all, even if it’s just for a week, after Wimbledon ends in July to have what he called “a little bit of a mental reset for the second part of the year.”

Not everyone has the luxury, or even the desire, to do that, for various reasons.

Some US Open players don’t think they can afford to take a break

Sometimes, players are coming back from an injury absence and want to make up for lost time, lest their rankings drop too much. Or perhaps they’ve been playing well and want to keep the momentum going. Or find themselves in a rut they want to play their way out of.

For someone like 37-year-old Adrian Mannarino of France, who in January 2024 became the oldest man to break into the ATP top 20, there is a benefit to embracing a philosophy that essentially amounts to “all work and no play.”

“I’m the type of player who likes to (compete) a lot, so when I retire, that’s when I’m going to take a lot of vacations,” he said. “It’s sometimes hard to get out of the (playing) rhythm: Going on holiday to try to break the stress (of) mental things, then getting back to it, is not easy. And with my game, I feel like I need to play a lot to get the rhythm, and I don’t like to get out of my rhythm.

“There’s a time for work and a time for holidays — and hopefully in the next few years, I’ll have more time for holidays.”

Vacations during the season don’t exist in team sports, but they do in tennis

The idea of taking vacation during the season doesn’t exist in team sports. For players in the NFL, NBA, NHL or Major League Baseball, there is an ample offseason, even for clubs that win a championship, to travel and rest, then begin working out again.

Boulter waited and wonders if it cost her. There was a need to add a tournament this summer to meet the WTA Tour requirement of six 500-level events, knowing she was going to be short one while playing on Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup team. She dropped four of five matches coming into the U.S. Open, then was eliminated in the first round.

“The times that I should have had periods of break, I don’t really feel like I chose myself,” Boulter said. “I kind of chose other things bigger than myself, and I think that’s why I kind of ended up at this point.”

US Open players can decide whether or not to hit the beach

Ajla Tomljanovic, who lost to Coco Gauff in the first round in New York on Tuesday night, said the answer is simple: “It’s your choice whether you play or not,” she said. “So for me, if I need a break, and I feel like I want to go on a vacation, I take it.”

She was planning for some practice after Wimbledon. But, like Sabalenka, Tomljanovic decided to hit the beach, instead.

“I felt like there was enough time to sneak that in,” she said. “And also, it’s very good for my body, as well. I have to be mindful of it. I wasn’t complaining about a few days off.”

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AP Tennis Writer Howard Fendrich contributed to this report.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis