Stefanos Tsitsipas, who closed a season of ups and downs that saw him fall out of the Top-10 but win the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, revealed how 2024 was an exhausting year, the most tiring of his career, due to the density of the ATP schedule.
In fact, a season is about to end that, between mandatory and increasingly numerous tournaments (including Paris Olympics 2024), overpaid exhibitions, has put the physical resistance of tennis players to the test. A problem, that of the increasingly crowded calendar, which is now a recurring theme in the discussions of players, media and insiders.
Tsitsipas had already expressed his opposition to the reform that extended the duration of some ATP Masters 1000 to two weeks, and now, in an interview with Sky Sports, he has underlined again how this choice of ATP is the wrong path to take. The Greek underlined how 2024 was the hardest year of his career. The umpteenth voice of a protagonist of the circuit who underlines the disagreement with a calendar that no longer allows you to breathe.
"It was the most tiring year I have spent on the Tour. It was a mental effort to be a certain tournament more than what I normally expected. The new concept of Masters 1000 is not good and I am not afraid to say it because it is my opinion and I would like to contribute to a calendar more suitable for tennis players," he explained.
A few weeks ago, through a post X, the Greek had already addressed the matter, analyzing how the two weeks of the ATP Masters 1000 have become a burden, and the quality of tennis has decreased because players do not have the necessary recovery and training time, having to constantly face matches.
"We do not have space to work off the court. It is curious that the ATP has committed to making this change in the calendar without first knowing if it works. The Paris-Bercy tournament was fun and easy to follow since it took place in a week. As it should be. If the goal was to lighten the calendar, extending the Masters 1000 to two weeks is not the best idea. Sometimes, it seems like they are fixing what was not broken," he said.
