Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas celebrates after profitable in opposition to Australia’s Alex De Minaur through the Males’s ATP Rome Open tennis match at Foro Italico in Rome on Might 14, 2024.
| Picture Credit score: AFP
Extra competitors days, extra tickets offered, extra TV time, more cash.
For tennis organizers, the long-sought improve of tournaments in Madrid and Rome — increasing them from eight days to just about two weeks — has been a bonanza.
For the gamers? Effectively, they haven’t been practically as enthusiastic.
With Madrid and Rome following already established two-week occasions in Indian Wells and Miami, a number of of the highest-ranked gamers — those who constantly attain the ultimate levels of those tournaments — are rising weary of spending a lot extra time on the highway.
“You bought to be some kind of superhero to be constant back-to-back 10 days in every occasion attending to the very finish of it,” latest Monte Carlo champion Stefanos Tsitsipas stated in Rome.
What bothers the highest gamers is that these Masters-level tournaments are being modeled after Grand Slams however they’re nonetheless not as prestigious because the Grand Slams: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
In essence, the tournaments in Madrid and Rome are merely warmups for Roland Garros.
“We needed extra drama after which we stretched the drama a bit an excessive amount of, the place it sort of turns into just like the ‘telenova’ that was too many seasons,” stated Victoria Azarenka, who was previously ranked No. 1. “Hopefully we make some changes, as a result of it’s too lengthy.”
Subsequent yr, the Cincinnati Open — a warmup for the U.S. Open — will even be expanded to the two-week format, which will increase the attracts from 64 to 96 gamers.
“Folks need to watch high gamers play in opposition to one another, week in and week out. … There’s a marketplace for that, however there needs to be a thought to ensure we do maintain our gamers,” Azarenka stated.
The highest 32 seeds within the expanded occasions get byes to the second spherical, and all gamers get days off between matches — which is a change from the previous format.
“The 2-week Masters 1000 occasions is nice for gamers which can be ranked between 50 and 100 on the earth as a result of they get an opportunity to play a main-draw occasion at a Masters 1000 occasion. It’s not nice for top-10 gamers,” fifth-ranked Alexander Zverev stated.
“Sure, you do get instructed you have got a day in between, you don’t need to play day by day. On the finish of the day that’s not resting. Resting is once you’re spending time at dwelling, once you’re sleeping in your personal mattress, perhaps with your loved ones, perhaps along with your canines, perhaps along with your children in case you have children, proper? … A day between matches, for those who’re at a unique place, that’s not resting. If you happen to’re making an attempt to make semifinals or finals of each occasion, you’re simply away so much longer, and it’s important to work much more.”
The schedule has been a scorching matter recently due to accidents to the boys’s tour’s two high younger gamers, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, even when their accidents won’t be a direct results of the longer tournaments.
Sinner (injured hip) and Alcaraz (proper forearm) each withdrew from Rome.
However accidents to high gamers are nothing new.
“I like this two-week format,” fourth-ranked Daniil Medvedev stated. “I like when there’s a day without work. … I don’t assume accidents would come from this format.”
Added 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, “On the finish the gamers need to earn money. The tournaments need to earn money. Then it’s all (a) cycle that comes collectively. We settle for that position.”
