Tennis News : Roddick keen to reduce schedule

Roddick beat his Taiwanese opponent in three sets in Shanghai

Andy Roddick has backed the call to reduce players' punishing schedules after Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer pulled out of the Shanghai Masters.

Britain's Andy Murray told BBC Sport last month that the issue would be discussed in Shanghai.

Murray, the defending champion, and world number two Rafael Nadal both have first-round byes at Shanghai.

Roddick, who is also playing, said: "I don't think we're storming offices, but I think the sentiment is still there."

The former world number one, from the United States, spoke out after beating Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun 6-2 3-6 6-2 in the first round.

"People have to understand, people act like we pull out and we get something out of it," he continued.

BBC TENNIS CORRESPONDENT JONATHAN OVEREND

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Andy Roddick is measured in his delivery, passionate for his argument and, most importantly, he has done his research. Conscious that the players could come over as money-grabbing millionaires, he points to sports like golf and basketball and compares revenue/prize-money balances. He feels tennis stars get a rough deal in comparison. This is where the players need care. They can't argue for a shorter season one week and more money the next. But a coherent and consistent argument has the ability to have much impact at tennis's top table.

"We don't get anything. They're out of the bonus pool now. They don't get their money this week.

"Obviously, if they were feeling well and they weren't worn down, then they would [play]. We're not getting away with anything by pulling out of tournaments.

"I feel like that's the way it's presented sometimes. That's just not the case."

Roddick also raised the issue of the earnings of players lower down the rankings when compared with other sports, and the demanding schedule they are obliged to play to maintain them.

"If we're getting selfish about it, I think players get 13% of total revenue, something like that, from the US Open, and the NBA is at a crossroads because they're going to have to go from 57% to 50%.

"That's an alarming number.

"That's not the be all and end all. I think we all feel very fortunate for what we get, but we are putting people in seats.

"We're spoiled. We're lucky. We get it. There's nobody complaining about anything. But if you look at, I said it the other day, the guy on [golf's] PGA Tour [Bill Haas] just won $ 11.5m [£7.3m].

"I think 15 on the all-time ATP career prize money list was $ 14m [£8.95m]," Roddick added, comparing the all-time earnings of tennis players with the prize money from a one-off golf tournament.

Tennis administrators claim the players are to blame because they voted for the current dates.