Novak Djokovic calls for radical change to tennis rules after first Wimbledon win

Djokovic's comments come after a wave of withdrawals before this year's Championships, with 19 players pulling out before their opening matches, including British hopes Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper.

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz is also absent after failing to recover from the wrist injury that has kept him out since April.

Leading names including Alcaraz, Djokovic, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff have all previously voiced concerns over the relentless schedule, but tournament organisers have instead expanded several ATP Masters 1000 events in recent years.

After progressing through the first round at Wimbledon, Djokovic was asked whether the sport's increasing physical demands were behind the growing number of injuries affecting younger players.

The Serbian admitted the statistics speak for themselves before turning his attention towards what he believes is the real problem.

"Well, look, it's a good question. Your observation is correct in terms of the injuries. I mean, the stats are showing that," Djokovic said.

"I think we have to see this from two perspectives. One that is probably overwhelmingly now dominant in our sport, and we are not the only sport, is the commercial side."

Djokovic argued that extending tournaments has primarily benefited event organisers rather than the players competing in them.

"I've seen there was a lot of debate on whether the Masters events particularly... should be supported by the players," he continued.

"Me, I was always against it. Commercially, as we said, from that perspective, obviously adds value, but adds value for who? Adds value for the tournament owners mostly."

The former world No 1 also revisited his opposition to the ATP's long-term commercial agreement, claiming players had ultimately been left worse off despite promises of greater financial rewards.

"There is many other underlying reasons why I am completely against and was always against this 30-year deal," he said.

"The players got the short end of the stick."

Djokovic sympathised with Alcaraz and other players who have complained about spending too much time away from home as tournaments continue to increase in length.

"I understand him. I understand them. I don't like it, too," he added.

"I think tennis really needs a reset of some kind on a bigger level. I think our tours respectively are not functioning well at all."

Despite his criticism, Djokovic insisted the four Grand Slams should remain largely untouched, arguing that Wimbledon, the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open remain the foundations of the sport.

Instead, he believes reforms should focus on the ATP Tour, with shorter tournaments, revised formats and changes designed to attract younger audiences.

"In my opinion, we have to change the format, the tours, have the tournaments have shorter matches, more dynamic, be able to have something more interesting and shorter length because this is too long," he said.

However, Djokovic admitted he is far from optimistic that meaningful reform will happen any time soon.

"I don't see that happening because what I've been hearing and what I've been seeing in the last couple of years, there's a lot more conflict within the governing bodies of our sport than there is unity," he said.

"We have to retain the culture and history of our sport... but if we want this sport to really improve, all the key people need to sit down and see what we can do."