Roddick blasts tour calendar but reluctant to strike

An exasperated Andy Roddick said the ATP men's tour must give players more time to rest during the season or risk shortening the careers of the "stars" of the sport.

The world number six lost to qualifier Lukasz Kubot in the first match of his title defence at the China Open last week and said then that the top players were playing too much tennis.

He renewed his attack at the Shanghai Masters yesterday while admitting the ultimate negotiating tool, a players' strike, was unlikely.

"I think it's ridiculous to think that you have a professional sport that doesn't have a legitimate off season to rest, get healthy, and then train," the 27-year-old told reporters at his 16th tournament of the season.

Roger Federer pulled out of Shanghai citing fatigue, while Andy Murray blamed a wrist injury for his absence from the inaugural $3.24 million tournament.

"I don't think that's all of one big coincidence, and I just hope that the short-sightedness doesn't affect the length of careers," he said.

"I think in tennis you definitely want your stars around as long as possible."

The top 30 men's players are obliged to play the four two-week grand slam events and eight of the nine Masters Series tournaments.

In addition, their best four results in ATP 500 events and best two in lower level tournaments count towards their rankings, meaning they must play at least 18 a year.

"We've been talking about this forever, and now we get slapped with mandatory tournaments," said the 2003 US Open champion.

Roddick expressed his frustration that the people with the power to change things were often the same people who ran the tournaments, which was "a little bit of a conflict of interest".