Tennis players are increasingly united in their calls for a change to the tournament schedule, with French tennis player Caroline Garcia the latest to confirm she is taking a break from the sport.

Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev have been among the high-profile voices calling for a reduced number of mandatory events in the game, with Garcia’s confirmation that she has ended her year early coming with a graphic message.

“Physically, I’ve been pushing my shoulder to its limit, trying to recover while competing, and it’s just not working. I need more time off to heal properly,” she said.

“Mentally, I need a reset. I need to step away from the constant grind of tennis.

“This year, my mindset was toxic. I lost touch with the joy of being a tennis player and became obsessed with rankings and wins.

“I’m exhausted from the anxiety, the panic attacks, the tears before matches. Tired of missing out on family moments and never having a place to truly call home.

“I’m tired of living in a world where my worth is measured by last week’s results, my ranking, or my unforced errors.”

Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas are among those who lost their first round matches in Asia in recent days after a quick turnaround from playing in the Laver Cup last weekend.

Now Roger Federer’s former coach Paul Annacone has described the current tennis schedule as ‘a circus’, as he gave his unfiltered views to the Tennis Channel.

“We have heard Carlitos (Alcaraz) talk about how the schedule is killing the players and I love Jannik Sinner’s take on this as says: ‘yes the schedule is complicated, but don’t play’,” said Annacone.

“There are some financial implications, could be some ranking implications, but the schedule doesn’t work.

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. It’s just getting more and more congested.

“It’s ridiculous for anyone to play an event of the magnitude of Laver Cup, which is so great and phenomenal and so emotionally charged.

“Then you fly to Asia on Tuesday morning after flying all night and then play the next day. Totally different time zone… it’s a circus.

“The tennis calendar has always been a circus and we don’t do ourselves any favours.”

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Alcaraz said the sport’s governing bodies are going to “kill us in some way” because of the physical demands exerted on players.

Britain’s Jack Draper called the schedule “mental” after heading from the US Open to Manchester to play in the Davis Cup for Great Britain last week.

Speaking after a 6-4 6-4 win over American Ben Shelton, Alcaraz told a press conference: “Probably during the next few years it’s going to be even more mandatory tournaments. Probably they are going to kill us in some way.

“Right now there are a lot of injured (players), because of the balls, because of the calendar, a lot of things. Probably at some point a lot of players are going to miss a lot of tournaments because of that.”

Meanwhile, world No 1 Sinner suggested players need to take responsibility for their own schedule as he said: “The schedule is quite long, obviously. But we players, we can still choose what to play and what not to play.

“Obviously we have some mandatory events, yes. As a player, you can still choose. It is a very busy schedule this year, there are a lot of tournaments. You don’t have to play a tournament.

“If you want, you can play. If not, you don’t play. For example, last year and also this year, I didn’t play in some tournaments because I wanted to practise. There are some choices behind this.”

The US Open champion has played 18 tournaments in 12 months, which is the same number as Novak Djokovic and one more than Alcaraz but five fewer than world number No 2 Alexander Zverev.