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Stan Wawrinka ripped the Paris Masters and the ATP after Jannik Sinner finished his match at 02:37 am and then got scheduled to return to the court around 14 hours later. Sinner, the fourth-seeded player in Paris, was scheduled to play his opening match at the tournament against Mackenzie McDonald in Wednesday's night session.
But since the start of the night session got delayed, Sinner got to the court only past midnight. In the end, Sinner ended up beating McDonald 6-7 (6) 7-5 6-1 in a late-night thriller that finished at 02:37 am local time. Sinner was scheduled to return to the court on Thursday afternoon and play against Alex de Minaur.
"Bravo @atptour. (A) way to help one of the best players in the world recover and be as ready as possible when he finished his previous match at 2:37 am this morning. 14,5 hours to recover.. what a joke," Casper Ruud reacted to seeing Sinner being scheduled for the day session after a previous late finish.
Wawrinka agreed with Ruud's comments as the Swiss wrote on X: "It’s crazy. (The) tournament doesn’t care and ATP just follows what the tournament will want! Always the same story..."
It’s crazy 🤦🏻♂️tournament doesn’t care and ATP just follow what the tournament will want 🤷🏻♂️!
Always the same story … — Stanislas Wawrinka (@stanwawrinka) November 2, 2023
Ruud, Wawrinka came to Sinner's defense, who pulled out of Paris
At around 2 pm local time, Sinner withdrew from his Paris round-of-16 match against de Minaur.
Sinner probably didn't have enough time to recover from his match against McDonald and decided not to risk anything. Meanwhile, Sinner highlighted the night earlier that starting his match so late was "tough." “I lost the first set in a bad way and I’m still getting used to the conditions, but I’m happy about the win and to be in the next round.
It was tough going on court after midnight, but it was nice to still have some crowd watching," Sinner said after finishing his match at nearly 3 am. Sinner will return to action at the ATP Finals in Turin, which start on November 12th.