The Masters Cup is a great concept - an end-of-season showdown where the best eight players in the world fight it out.
But if only one member of the top six is fit and five replacements are required, as has happened at this year's event, then what's the point?
Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick all qualified only to withdraw in advance, Andre Agassi played one match and departed, and Rafael Nadal didn't even manage to make it onto the court.
Roger Federer still isn't 100% fit, but at least he's still standing, and thank goodness for that because he's the only star left.
 Of the eight players who arrived in Shanghai, Agassi and Nadal later withdrew |
In the last 24 hours alone the organisers have twice felt the need to come out and publicly apologise to the spectators.
You can view this in two ways.
Shanghai has signed up to host the Masters Cup for the next three years. The organisers have spent millions of pounds on the organisation and they've built this extraordinary stadium which has been described by Federer as the best venue around.
So, having put all this effort in, they wanted to be rewarded with a good tournament. And they clearly haven't been.
The organisers feel sorry for the fans and so do I.
There is a desire to raise the profile of tennis here but it's difficult to sell the likes of Mariano Puerta, Fernando Gonzalez and Gaston Gaudio to a nation which isn't overly-familiar with the sport.
On the other hand, the organisers have offered a discount to ticket-holders here for next year's tournament as compensation and, in my opinion, that was a step too far and rather insulting to the players who have turned up.
 |  The whole of the sport needs to get together round the table, put personal issues to one side and say what can we do to do change this sport for the good of everyone |
I also think the criticism of Agassi, after he pulled out with an ankle injury, was a bit of a shame. He did not come here, collect his cheque and then leave in the space of 24 hours.
He turned up a week before the tournament, got as fit as possible, managed to struggle through his match against Nikolay Davydenko and had to pull out.
The simple fact is you cannot force unfit players to play.
What's happening in Shanghai also happened at last month's Paris Masters, which is one of the best-supported events on the circuit.
But because Paris comes so late in the year it was also deprived of many of the best players because of injury.
The main problem is there is too much reliance on personal interest in the sport. For example, every tournament wants theirs to be the best and to have the top players competing.
 Australian Open champion Safin is forced to watch from the sidelines in Shanghai |
There is nothing wrong with that.
But if the players are being enticed to tournaments on a weekly basis, often continent-to-continent, surface-to-surface, then burnout is inevitable.
Another problem that in my mind is at the root of increasing injury among players, is that tennis has become too slow.
Courts are slower and the balls have become heavier to encourage longer rallies and more exciting tennis for the fans.
But what that means is that players are running around the court more, the balls are being struck harder because of racquet technology and - in basic terms - it is more of a strain to return the ball than it ever used to be.
If there was more pace to the courts then perhaps more players would be encouraged to play at the net, shortening rallies and the pressure on bodies would be less intense. But this has to be debated at a higher level.
All of the competing interests in the sport need to get round the table, put personal issues to one side and say what can be done to change tennis for the good of everyone.
The authorities should take this as a wake-up call to say 'what are we going to do for the common good of this sport?'
For all the talk of player burnout, it might just be bad luck that all these injuries coincided with the start of the tournament.
It might have been coincidence in Shanghai, but these issues need to be addressed at the highest level to avoid the risk of it happening again next year.
MMIX
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