On the sidelines of the Laver Cup, Carlos Alcaraz had denounced a schedule that was too busy. “There are a lot of mandatory tournaments, they are going to kill us,” he had declared. Jannik Sinner urged his rival to sort things out.
Caught in his own trap. The young Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz denounced the risk that an ATP calendar that will soon give pride of place to premium tournaments and its infernal pace would pose to players, regretting that the cost to health of all these trips and the series of high-intensity matches is being minimized. Except that Rafael Nadal’s compatriot spoke on the subject after participating in the Laver Cup, an exhibition event imagined by Roger Federer and his agent Tony Godsick. A very lucrative event to which he was invited with other stars of the circuit, when nothing obliged him to do so. This was not something his rival, world number 1 Jannik Sinner, did not fail to point out to him, by suggesting that he could very well do without participating in certain events.
“We don’t have to play”
“Alcaraz said the calendar was too busy? That’s true, in recent years the seasons have been very long, but you have to make choices. There are mandatory tournaments, that’s obvious, but each player can still choose where and when to play,” said the Italian, who spoke on Tuesday from Beijing where he will defend his title this week, with a first match against Chilean Nicolas Jarry. “You don’t have to play,” he insisted. “For example, in the last two years I’ve skipped tournaments because I wanted to train. I’m always trying to improve on and off the court, to understand myself, to understand what works and what doesn’t work in my game. I know I can still improve, and that’s the most stimulating part for me.”
“There are a lot of mandatory tournaments, they’re going to kill us,” fears Carlos Alcaraz. “Sometimes you don’t want to go to a tournament,” he explained on the sidelines of the Laver Cup. “I’ve felt that way a few times. Sometimes I don’t feel motivated at all, but I play my best tennis when I’m smiling and having fun on the court.” The ATP unveiled its 2025 calendar in March. Among the new features, the Masters 1000 in Canada and Cincinnati will now take place over 12 days, joining Shanghai, Rome and Madrid, which made the transition in 2023. The number of ATP 500 tournaments will increase from 13 to 16, for a total of 60 tournaments in 29 countries.
