Stefanos Tsitsipas says two-week ATP Masters 1000 events result in a drop in quality as players do not get enough time off to recover and are forced into intense training to stay in shape over a long season.
Five Masters tournaments currently stretch over two weeks, but earlier this year, the ATP said seven events would be held over 12 days each starting in 2025.
That decision did not go over well with players, with Tsitsipas calling it a “backwards move” that is “fixing what wasn’t broken.”
“The two-week Masters 1000s have turned into a drag,” Tsitsipas wrote on X. “The quality has definitely dropped. Players aren’t getting the recovery or training time they need, with constant matches and no space for the intense work off the court.”
The two-week Masters 1000s have turned into a drag. The quality has definitely dropped. Players aren’t getting the recovery or training time they need, with constant matches and no space for the intense work off the court.
It’s ironic that the @atptour committed to this format… https://t.co/DrvgODppzJ
— Stefanos Tsitsipas (@steftsitsipas) November 7, 2024
Tsitsipas was responding on social media to former player Andy Roddick, who said on his podcast that two-week Masters events are “so stupid” as more players seem to get injured when a weeklong event would have allowed them to build their bodies up during off-weeks.
Reuters has contacted the ATP for comment.
Tsitsipas is not the first active player to criticize the ATP, with four-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz saying the tight tennis calendar makes it difficult to stay motivated throughout the year and increases the risk of injuries.
“It is difficult. Sometimes I didn’t feel motivated at all,” Alcaraz said. “The calendar’s so tight. A lot of tournaments … not as [many] days off as I want.”
Alexander Zverev said earlier this year that the two-week Masters events were great for players ranked between 50 and 100 in the world because they get a chance to play in a main-draw event, but the schedule was not ideal for top-10 players.
“You do get told you have a day in between [matches], you don’t have to play every day. At the end of the day, that’s not resting,” Zverev said before the Rome Masters, which was a two-week event. “Resting is when you’re spending time at home, when you’re sleeping in your own bed, maybe with your family, maybe with your dogs, maybe with your kids. … That’s what resting is.
“If you’re at a different place, that’s not resting. If you’re going deep in events … if you’re trying to make semifinals or finals of every event, you’re just away a lot longer and you have to work a lot more. It’s as simple as that.”