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Carlos Alcaraz is Fed Up With The ATP Tour, and He’s Not Alone

Originally posted on Total Apex Sports | By Fahad Hamid | Last updated Oct 26, 2025 9:49 AM ET

Another day, another top tennis player calling out the ATP Tour for its absolutely brutal schedule. This time, it’s the one and only Carlos Alcaraz, who, despite being a young gun, is already feeling the burn. Honestly, who can blame him? The guy is basically expected to be a tennis-playing machine, jet-setting across the globe week after week with barely enough time to do laundry, let alone rest and recover.

Speaking at a press conference before the Paris Masters, Alcaraz didn’t hold back. When asked about the ideal number of matches a player should have in a season, he gave the most diplomatic non-answer possible, which in itself spoke volumes. “Well, I don’t have an exact number of matches that we should play,” he said, before getting to the real issue. “However, they obviously need to do something with the calendar.” You don’t say, Carlos.

It’s a sentiment we’ve heard a million times, yet it seems to fall on deaf ears at the ATP headquarters. Alcaraz is just the latest in a long line of players to point out the obvious: the tour is a relentless grind that’s chewing up and spitting out its biggest stars.

Alcaraz on the Never-Ending Tennis Season

For anyone who doesn’t follow the pro circuit, let me paint a picture for you. The ATP calendar is an 11-month marathon. It kicks off in late December and doesn’t wrap up until the Tour Finals in November. This year, the season ends on November 16th, and the next big event, the United Cup, starts just over a month later on January 2nd. The Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year, follows shortly after on January 18th. That’s not a break; that’s a long weekend.

“The number of tournaments that we have to play, I think, is too high,” Alcaraz explained. “We don’t have such, you know, a good period of time that we can practice, we can rest. Even during the season, I think it is week after week after week and we don’t have the chance to have a week just to prepare pretty well for the tournaments.”

It’s a wonder these athletes can even remember what city they’re in. This isn’t about being pampered millionaires; it’s about basic human biology. The constant travel, high-stakes matches, and lack of recovery time are a perfect recipe for injuries and burnout. And Alcaraz has already had to make some tough calls to protect himself.

Why Player Health Should Be a Priority

Alcaraz himself is a prime example of the toll this schedule takes. He had to withdraw from the Shanghai Masters after winning the Tokyo Open, citing the need to “heal my body” after an ankle injury. He also skipped the Canadian Open earlier in the year. These aren’t just random decisions; they’re calculated moves by a player who is desperately trying to stay fresh for the long haul.

“We could see last year, two years ago that I’m not coming fresh to this time of the year,” he admitted. It’s a sad state of affairs when a 22-year-old phenom is already worried about burning out before he even hits his peak.

And he’s not the only one. Alexander Zverev has criticized the expansion of Masters 1000 events to two weeks, and women’s World No. 1 Iga Świątek has called the schedule “too intense.” The players are screaming for help, but it seems the only response from the ATP is to add more tournaments. Case in point: the announcement of a new Masters 1000 in Saudi Arabia starting in 2028. It’s almost comical.

The ATP is caught between a rock and a hard place—or, more accurately, between player welfare and a giant pile of money. Growing the sport is great, but at what cost? If all your top players are injured or too exhausted to compete, what kind of product are you even selling? It’s a classic case of short-term greed over long-term sustainability. It’s about time the suits in charge started listening to the very people who make the tour worth watching. Otherwise, they might find themselves with a lot of shiny new tournaments and no one left to play in them.

This article first appeared on Total Apex Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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