The 2026 tennis season has been marked by a growing injury crisis, and former Grand Slam finalist John Lloyd believes the situation is far from its peak. Speaking exclusively to Tennis365 at the Queen’s Club, the former British No. 1 delivered a blunt assessment: “It’s going to get worse.”
Lloyd’s warning comes against a backdrop of widespread withdrawals at the grasscourt swing. The ATP and WTA 500 events at the 2026 Queen’s Club Championships were severely disrupted, with 17 players — nine men and eight women — pulling out of the singles draws. High-profile absentees included Carlos Alcaraz, Jack Draper, Jessica Pegula, Marta Kostyuk, Belinda Bencic, and Rafael Jodar.
The damage has extended to Wimbledon itself. According to Tennis365, eight men and five women have already withdrawn from the 2026 Wimbledon Championships, among them four current top-20 players: Alcaraz, Victoria Mboko, Lorenzo Musetti, and Valentin Vacherot.
Lloyd, who reached a career-high world ranking of No. 23 and was runner-up at the 1977 Australian Open, placed the blame squarely on the structure of the professional calendar and the demands of the Grand Slam format. “An ideal world — which will never happen — is that they move the Australian Open to March, but it’ll never happen,” he said. “But at least the better compromise is they make the Grand Slams best of three [sets].”
The 69-year-old was particularly pointed about preparation periods being the root cause of physical breakdown, rather than match play itself. “It’s not the physicality of the matches at the Slams, although that is extreme. In my opinion, it’s the preparation. That’s where the body breaks down,” Lloyd explained.
“Tennis is one of the most rigorous sports there is. There’s a break at the end of the year, but it’s really for six weeks maximum. You take two weeks off to kind of recharge, and even then, you’re still on empty, and then you’ve got to start preparing, not just for a tournament like Queen’s, you’ve got to prepare for a major.”
Lloyd painted a vivid picture of the relentless cycle players face throughout the season. “You’ve got to go from being dormant, almost hibernating, to go to the extreme to get ready for possibly seven, four-hour matches. You’re putting your body through this ridiculous turbocharge without gradually going into it. You finish that one, and then you have a week or so off, and then you have Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back. You have a little break, then you’ve got to start preparing for the French [Open] and Wimbledon. Then you recover from that, you have a couple of weeks off, then you’ve got to recover for the US Open. It’s insanity.”
On the question of format, Lloyd drew a direct comparison between eras to underline how the physical demands of the modern game have escalated. “Best-of-five in my day is the same as best-of-three now, in terms of what they do with their bodies and the physicality,” he said. “They’re animals — and I mean that in the best way. But they are going to break down, and it will happen more and more.”
The injury concerns at Wimbledon 2026 follow a broader pattern that has persisted across the season. World No. 1 Jannik Sinner is among those expected to headline the men’s draw, though the withdrawal list is likely to grow further ahead of the tournament’s start. The debate over best-of-five versus best-of-three formats at Grand Slams has resurfaced periodically over the years, but no formal changes have been implemented by the ATP or the Grand Slam Board. Whether Lloyd’s latest intervention reignites that conversation among governing bodies remains to be seen.
