Yeah lowering the number of mandatory tournaments is pretty much all you could do TBH, anything else would not be realistic

News: Anisimova out of Madrid with a wrist injury

She did miss Charleston but never gave a reason, its possible that was for the wrist too but the fact that she was in Madrid 3 or 4 days ago and ready to play tells you this may have been picked up recently

Alexandrova also out with a back injury

And as former players have said, players have been complaining about the schedule since the 80s and it has never really changed that much, would not expect a change now.

Injury numbers are up but its not a significant jump and I feel players are way more cautious than they used to be.

Carlos Alcaraz on the possibility of missing Roland Garros

“I have a long career ahead of me. Forcing for Roland-Garros could penalize me enormously in the future”

“We'll see what the exams show. But I prefer to come back a bit later rather than rush.”

(via Eurosport)

Do what though, I don't think there's anything you can do to solve it

In Draper's case he just seems to be injury prone. He's not even playing that much and picking up injuries still.

WTA 1000 Madrid R1:
Peyton Stearns vs Lois Boisson

Great to see Boisson back after the quadriceps tear in Beijing late last season, both players in this match that enjoy the clay. Stearns needs to find form though, did not end the HC season well despite winning Austin

Prediction: Stearns in 2

Madrid Tuesday Order of Play:

10 main draw WTA matches, rest is qualifying.

News: Draper is out of Madrid

He is now dealing with 2 different injuries, I'm assuming this is related to the knee that forced him to retire in Barcelona and obviously the arm forced him to miss a lot of time last year and into this year

Will no longer be seeded in slams or 1000s, outside top 45.

ATP 1000 Madrid Draw:

Yeah he's 4th in consecutive weeks but 1st in total weeks by far

Madrid starts tomorrow with qualifying before the WTA main draw starts on Tuesday. No official night sessions until Friday but may go late to get through 6 matches.

ATP Draw will be out as well, looks like at 10am local per the Mutua Madrid Open YouTube.

WTA Top 10/Race Top 8:

Just like the ATP, no major changes here either, Ostapenko falls 18 spots after not defending her Stuttgart title, Baptiste and Sonmez reach career highs

Rybakina passes Sabalenka for #1 in the Race after winning Stuttgart

Sabalenka up to 87 weeks as #1.

ATP Top 10/Race Top 8:

Not too much movement in the Top 10, Fils is up to 25th, career highs for Jodar and Quinn. Ranking slide for Rune, who won Barcelona last year.

Fils jumps into the Top 8 of the Race. Shelton up to #5 in the Race.

Sinner gets his 68th week as World #1.

This Week's Champs:

WTA 500 Stuttgart: Elena Rybakina
13th Title, 2nd of 2026, 2nd Stuttgart Title

ATP 500 Munich: Ben Shelton
5th Title, 2nd of 2026

ATP 500 Barcelona: Arthur Fils
4th Title, 1st Since Oct. 2024

WTA 250 Rouen: Marta Kostyuk
2nd Title, 1st Since March 2023

Especially before she goes to defend Rome

WTA 1000 Madrid Draw:

News: Karolina Muchova is out of Madrid

Probably smart scheduling to make sure she can stay healthy, something she has smartly done all year. Muchova, Raducanu, Navarro, and Joint all miss so the cutoff is down to #36 for seeding.

Arthur Fils wins 6-2, 7⁷-6² vs Andrey Rublev

What an ending. Overcomes what was truly one of the worst games I've ever seen when he served for the title and then had 3 championship points before having to break Rublev when he served for the set at 5-6.

Marta Kostyuk wins 6-3, 6-4 vs Veronika Podrez

Was a great run to the Final for the young Ukrainian Podrez but its the more experienced in Kostyuk who takes the title as the top seed this week in Rouen.

📸 Jimmie48/WTA Tour

Arthur Fils wins the last 6 games to take the opening set 6-2 vs Rublev.

Basically, he got broken in his first service game and then locked in, incredible level for a majority of that set.

Yeah that's been a successful partnership from the jump

Ben Shelton wins 6-2, 7-5 vs Flavio Cobolli

Takes a 1st title on the European red clay, as his improvements on the surface have been quite impressive. Its not a bad surface for him as its easier to return serve which can be a weakness on faster surfaces

📸 Matthias Schrader/AP Photo

Elena Rybakina wins 7-5, 6-1 vs Karolina Muchova

The opening set got interesting after Rybakina got broken when serving for the opening set but generally it was a pretty one sided match to give Elena her 2nd Porsche in Stuttgart.

📸 Jimmie48/WTA Tour

Shelton 6-2 vs Cobolli in the Munich Final

Lot of close games particularly early in the set but Ben won most of them and pulls within a set of a first European clay title. He's won a title on Houston clay, which is more like mud as far as I'm concerned.

Rybakina 7-5 vs Muchova. Should have been a bit easier but played a poor game when serving for the set.

🤣

I think him not mentioning Madrid in press is what made it seem like he might.

He mentioned Rome and Paris in Monte Carlo but never Madrid

Championship Sunday:

Day starts in Stuttgart at 1pm with Rybakina vs Muchova and 30 minutes later it'll be Shelton vs Cobolli.

At 3:30pm, Kostyuk vs Podrez in Rouen and 30 minutes after that it'll be Rublev vs Fils in Barcelona.

Sunday Finals:

Stuttgart:
Elena Rybakina vs Karolina Muchova
Prediction: Rybakina in 3

Munich:
Ben Shelton vs Flavio Cobolli
Prediction: Cobolli in 3

Barcelona:
Andrey Rublev vs Arthur Fils
Prediction: Fils in 2