Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz won the title during the week in Beijing. Image: keystone
The recent Beijing tournament won by Carlos Alcaraz was scheduled from Thursday to Wednesday. That means a weekday final. A strange choice, nevertheless explainable.
Carlos Alcaraz’s track record continues to grow. The Spaniard added a new trophy to his already impressive collection this week: that of the Beijing tournament, previously won by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. Roger Federer never tried to take it over.
“Carlitos” was opposed in the final to the Italian Jannik Sinner. A dream encounter, relatively unusual at this stage of the competition. The two men have in fact made a habit of crossing swords in the previous round, that is to say during the semi-finals. Even rarer, they fought this final battle for the title in the middle of the week. A Wednesday, and not a Sunday or even a Saturday as is traditionally done.
There was another final the day before this match. That of the Tokyo 500 tournament won Tuesday by the Frenchman Arthur Fils. These strange programming may be surprising at first glance. But there is nothing new in this. The situation has already been encountered in 2023 and several elements help to explain it.
Shanghai extended
The ATP increased the duration of certain Masters 1000 last season. This is the case of that of Shanghai, now held over twelve days and no longer eight. It began on Wednesday, the day of the final of the Beijing tournament and will end on Sunday, October 13.
There was therefore no interruption in the men’s calendar and the events followed each other perfectly. Or almost.
There is indeed an interruption, but it came at the start of the Asian tour. The 250 tournaments in Chengdu and Hangzhou in China preceded those in Beijing and Tokyo. And they too were organized on specific dates: from September 18 to 24, that is to say from Wednesday to Tuesday. The fact that they did not start on a Monday can be explained by the presence of the Davis Cup in the calendar.
Coming to Asia
The format proposed during this prestigious competition differs from that encountered the rest of the year. In the Davis Cup, almost all the players are mobilized until Sunday. This is not the case during traditional tournaments where tennis players become fewer and fewer as the weekend gets closer. Only the two finalists travel at the last minute and are scheduled as late as possible for the next event.
However, here, it was necessary to move a significant part of the players on the circuit, from Bologna in Italy, Valencia in Spain and Manchester in the United Kingdom – three cities which hosted the group stage of the Davis Cup – to China. Not qualified, Switzerland played in Bienne against Peru. If Stan Wawrinka had, for example, joined Severin Lüthi’s team, which he did not do, it would then have been complicated for him to be involved in Chengdu the following Monday if his desire had been to compete in this competition , taking into account the distance and time difference.
Such a situation would have pushed some tennis players to boycott the Davis Cup, since there is nothing more important than a personal career. Yes, ATP points matter more than anything.
The best at the Laver Cup
The calendar could have resumed its usual course from the second week of the Asian tour. The tournaments in Chengdu and Hangzhou can after all be arranged to allow those in Beijing and Tokyo to be held from Monday to Sunday. Qualifying for the Shanghai Masters 1000 would then occupy the two-day lag time until the weekday start of the tour’s most anticipated tournament.
However, the fact that the ATP 500 in Tokyo and Beijing start on Wednesday and Thursday respectively is not insignificant. These two competitions which, incidentally, begin with the round of 16 and do not exempt any player, count on the presence of the best in the world. However, these tennis players are entered in the Laver Cup the previous weekend. There were 14 of them playing this year until Sunday on the Berlin side. There can be up to 16.
This gathering is thus akin to a micro Davis Cup, again far from the Asian continent.
Forcing players to appear on the courts of Beijing or Tokyo from the start of the following week would cause systematic withdrawals, the best on the planet being more attracted by the exhibition tournament dear to Roger Federer, more prestigious than the ranked events 500.
However, this unusual programming seems to have paid off. Several players present at the Laver Cup lined up whether in Beijing or Tokyo. Carlos Alcaraz recently gave victory to the Europe team coached by Björn Borg. He was then there last Friday in China for the start of his Asian tour. The rest is known: the protégé of Juan Carlos Ferrero was titled Wednesday in Beijing.
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The Paris 2024 Olympic Games in pictures
A smoke resembling the French team flag is shown above the Pont d’Austerlitz during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)
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