The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has approved the extension of its off-season to seven weeks in the 2012 and 2013 season, announced ATP Executive Chairman and President Adam Helfant here on Sunday.

The changes were achieved by removing the free week between the BNP Paris Masters and the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and rescheduling four late-season events to dates earlier in the year.

Players will benefit from an additional two weeks off without the elimination of any tournaments on the ATP World Tour.

"The health and wellbeing of our players is paramount. Preserving and extending their playing careers is critical for the long-term good of the sport," said Helfant.

Several top players had been complaining ATP's long schedule in recent years as American ace Andy Roddick claimed that a long season was contributing to player injuries as early as in 2008.

【体坛英语资讯：ATP to extend off-season to seven weeks from 2012】相关文章：

★ 体坛英语资讯：Federer and Henin win top sports awards

★ 体坛英语资讯：Bremen promote Nouri as head coach

★ 体坛英语资讯：Liu starts from scratch to prepare for 2008

★ 体坛英语资讯：Totti denies considering Italy return

★ 体坛英语资讯：Chinese football teams hopes to make most of lucky draws

★ 体坛英语资讯：From dark horse to freestyle favorite

★ 体坛资讯：Tour reels from latest doping scandal

★ 娱乐英语资讯：Tom Cruise and wife set to move to New York

★ 体坛英语资讯：Wang Nan still has something to prove

★ 体坛英语资讯：Striker Ronaldinho to be on injury list six weeks