[Philip]

My understanding of Andy's schedule in his push to close in on the #1 ranking is as followed

Tokyo      :   1/10/12 Singles & Doubles     500 points
Shanghai :   7/10/12 Singles                   1000 points
Basel       : 22/10/12 Singles                     500 points
Paris        : 29/10/12 Singles                   1000 points
WTF        :   5/11/12 Singles                    1500 points
==================================
Total points                                             4500 points

As you can see, if Andy progresses deep in each tournament, apart from one week break from 15-21st October, Andy will be participating in 5 tournaments in 6 weeks, with the last 3 tournaments in consecutive weeks !

Can his body handle the stress ? I think Andy should drop Basel to give his body a fair chance to recover so he can compete well at the WTF against the very best otherwise he will very likely run out of juice comes the WTF.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tournaments/Event-Calendar.aspx

[Ruthie]

I've just realised that....How stupid of me lol. Comes from not concentrating on what you are doing lol. Just ignore me, sometimes it's best lol.

Isn't there a week between Tokyo and Shanghai? I could be wrong, I probably am, but I thought there was. Putting it like that, it is a lot. I wonder if something will have to go? We'll see.

No there isn't tj - shanghai starts a week on monday.  I do wonder though whether Andy might pull out of Basel if he does well in Asian stretch.  It might be there as an insurance policy should he not do so.   It does seem like too much tennis in run up to WTF, which he has rightly identified as a priority.

[Ruthie]

I had forgotten he pulled out of Basel last year so as others have pointed out on a different thread perhaps not so likely after all tj.  I can only think that he and Mr L have decided to go for it over next few weeks on basis he'll then have a good gap before AO to recover.