Rafael Nadal proposes two-year rankings to help manage the schedule: 'We're not 21 or 22 anymore'

Rafael Nadal believes tennis needs to follow the example of golf and adopt two-year rankings to help players manage their schedules.

During his pre-tournament press conference in Montreal ahead of the Rogers Cup, the Spaniard was asked whether the tennis schedule had been difficult to deal with for players.

Roger Federer took six months off last year to deal with a knee injury and went on to have a career resurgence, returning in January and winning five trophies so far including Wimbledon.

Novak Djokovic has followed the Swiss ace's example as he will take the rest of the year off as he recovers from injury, with many predicting similar results when he comes back.

Nadal, however, claims that the tennis schedule remains the same, but with players nowadays playing for much longer than the previous generation, more breaks are required.

"I repeat the same. Roger is 35, 36, I'm 31, Stan is 32 maybe, Novak is 30. We're not 21 or 22 anymore," Nadal said in the pre-tournament press conference. "The generation before us, most of them at that age had already retired."

"I said in the past it [the schedule] didn't work but it will be better to manage the schedule — to have a better schedule — to have a ranking for two years. Two-year ranking, not one-year ranking. That's going to protect the players and help the players to have periods to find windows for rest.

"Having a one-year ranking, it's always that if you want to be in a good position in the ranking, you cannot rest much. If you are Federer, Novak or even myself and Andy, we are able to manage it that when we come back we have been winning lots of matches, then you can do it.

"But in general terms, with injuries and being older, it doesn't help a lot. The schedule is the same, the only thing is that players are playing longer and when you are getting older, you need to find periods [of rest] because mentally, physically, you need it."

Two-year rankings work in such a way that the points earned by a player are calculated based on their performances over a two-year spell, which is something Nadal has advocated for in the past.

One major advantage of such a system is that players would be able to take time off and not drop too low in the tennis rankings, which could affect their seedings in future tournaments.

Current US Open champion and world number four Stan Wawrinka for example, could drop as low as eight in the rankings due to him requiring knee surgery.

Nadal's Rogers Cup campaign will begin this week as he faces the winner of the first round match between Borna Coric and Mikhail Youzhny, where a run into the semi-finals will guarantee him regaining his world number one ranking.