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Carlos Alcaraz, after a sensational start to his career, began to suffer some physical problems which led him to stay away from the ATP Tour for some periods. With a schedule full of appointments and commitments on a weekly basis, since the end of the 2022 season, the young Spaniard has also struggled to balance his schedule. And considering his tennis, which is very physically demanding, the dense ATP schedule has left him facing questions.
Coming back on the court in Buenos Aires after the Australian Open 2024, the Spanish tennis player expressed his disagreement with the obligation for tennis players in the Top 30 to play at least 16 tournaments a year. The health of the athletes, according to Carlitos, is overshadowed by the ATP, in order to guarantee the fans spectacle and entertainment.
"At the moment the calendar is too busy. If you start the season in the first week of racing, you have to leave home on 25 or 26 December and only finish at the beginning of the following December. It's almost a year of non-stop travel and touring. I think they force us to play too many tournaments and that the schedule is too long
Ultimately, what the ATP is doing is playing with the health of the players, having to be at the highest level for so long, tournament after tournament. This is why I think something needs to change and find a solution," said Carlitos in a recent interview with the Spanish newspaper Olè.
Alcaraz is unhappy of the current ATP schedule
Competition days have been lengthened for almost all ATP Masters 1000 tournaments of the season, and all players in the top-30 of the ATP rankings are obliged to play at least 16 tournaments per year: the 4 Slams, the 9 ATP Masters 1000s, 2 ATP 500 and one ATP 250.
The busy ATP schedule has led many tennis players and insiders to argue with the men's board's choice to make the season so packed. With a very tight schedule for years now, to which this year will be added the Olympics and a series of exhibition events, tennis players are increasingly faced with an effort that leads to increasingly frequent injuries.
It must also be said that Alcaraz will also take part in the million-dollar exhibition tournaments of the Hopman Cup and the Laver Cup, in addition to the Six Kings Slams and the match on March 3 in Las Vegas against Rafael Nadal, which will be broadcast on Netflix. But the competitive intensity of these events is certainly not comparable to that of the main tournaments.