The Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz was titled 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 over.
“Carlitos” faced the Italian Jannik Sinner in the final. A dream encounter, relatively unusual at this stage of the competition. The two men have in fact become accustomed to 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. But there is nothing new in this. The situation has already been encountered in 2023 and several elements help to explain it.
Shanghai extension
The ATP increased the duration of some Masters 1000 events last season. This is the case of that of Shanghai, now organized over twelve days and no longer eight. It began on Wednesday, the day of the Beijing tournament final, 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 comes 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, or from Wednesday to Tuesday. The fact that they did not start on a Monday can be explained by the presence of the Davis Cup on the calendar.
Enter 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 there are fewer and fewer tennis players as the weekend approaches. Only the two finalists travel at the last minute and are scheduled as late as possible for the next event.
But 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, then it would have been complicated for him to be involved in Chengdu the following Monday if his wish 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, because there is nothing more important than a personal career. Yes, ATP points matter more than anything.
The best way to make a cup
The calendar could have resumed its usual course from the second week of the Asian tour. The tournaments in Chengdu and Hangzhou can in fact be organized in such a way as to allow those in Beijing and Tokyo to take place from Monday to Sunday. Qualification for the Shanghai Masters 1000 would then fill the two-day gap until the weekday start of the most anticipated tournament on the circuit.
However, the fact that the ATP 500 in Tokyo and Beijing start on Wednesday and Thursday respectively is not insignificant. These two competitions, which 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 registered for 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 500 ranked events. .
However, this unusual programming seems to have borne fruit. Several players present at the Laver Cup were there, whether in Beijing or Tokyo. Carlos Alcaraz recently gave victory to the European team coached by Björn Borg. He was then present 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.
