The American surgeon Dr Richard Berger, who has operated on Del Potro and Laura Robson, says: "There are too many events, and on both the WTA and ATP tours there’s very little down time.
"There's not enough healing time because of the intensity of the matches, and in most tournaments outside the slams there's not even a day's rest.
"Players need to have superhuman abilities to stay fit."
Next up on the tennis gravy train is the gruelling clay-court season, which Federer says he may miss chunks of to preserve his body for Wimbledon. Hopefully the majority of the top players will be available next month, but a rash of withdrawals would not be a surprise.
The tennis calendar is reaching breaking point, and so are the players.
How the men's top 10 have all been laid low
in last 12 months
Andy
Murray - Missed Miami with elbow injury
Novak
Djokovic - Missed Miami with elbow injury
Stan
Wawrinka - Suffered knee injury at Australian Open and subsequently missed
Rotterdam
Kei
Nishikori - Retired from Wimbledon with rib injury
Milos
Raonic - Missed Indian Wells and withdrew from Miami with hamstring injury
Roger
Federer - Missed French Open and US Open with back and then knee injury
Rafael
Nadal - Withdrew from French Open and missed Wimbledon with wrist injury
Dominic
Thiem - Retired from US Open with knee injury
Marin
Cilic - Missed Monte Carlo with knee injury
Jo-Wilfried
Tsonga - Retired from US Open with knee injury
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