'I've not heard a single player say they love it': Alexander Zverev slams two-week Masters 1000 events

Alexander Zverev expressed his disagreement with the two-week Masters 1000 tournaments, stating that he has never spoken to a single player who likes the extended format. The German joined in the criticism of the crowded calendar and the fact that seven of the nine Masters 1000 tournaments this season are now long-duration events.

This week's Canadian Open is being played with a redesigned 96-player draw in a format that spans 12 days, as opposed to previous years when it was only seven days. It joins the trend of other Masters 1000 events, such as Madrid and Rome, which have recently adopted a longer schedule.

In theory, with larger main draws, the ATP hoped to give more players the opportunity to compete in top-tier tournaments and improve the prize money for them. However, this has come at the expense of the top stars, who find it nearly impossible to attend all the mandatory events without suffering physical repercussions.

The issue has become more relevant than ever after the withdrawal of four of the top-6 players from the Canadian Open. Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, and Jack Draper are not playing in the tournament—the first three due more to a technical and preventative decision than any serious physical issue (as is the case for Draper, who is recovering from an injury).

They likely share the same ambition as Zverev, who emphasizes Grand Slam tournaments. With the US Open fast approaching and being the main goal of this swing, the German is the top seed in Toronto, which could mean a greater physical load for him than for his colleagues, as he will also attend the Cincinnati Open—a tournament where Sinner, Alcaraz, and Djokovic are expected to return next week.

Amid his participation in Toronto, Zverev gave an interview with Nothing Majr, where he was asked if he would prefer a more limited schedule to better prepare for Grand Slam tournaments.

"The thing is I would love to. But with how the ATP has done the tournaments nowadays, it’s impossible to. How are you gonna do that? You have the 9 Masters 1000 events, which are mandatory. Most of them are two-week-long events nowadays, except Monte Carlo and Paris Bercy, which I think are the best two weeks nowadays because you’ve kind of in and out. I think for a fan and for every tennis player, like, Paris Bercy was awesome last year. I won it, which was even more awesome for me (laughs).

You kind of get there, you play your five matches, and you get out of there. You don’t have to stick around. You don’t have to practice in between matches. You don’t have to do all those things. That’s how Masters events used to be. I think all the players loved it. Now the ATP has made four mandatory 500 events for you to play, which used to be three, now it’s four. You kind of don’t really get under 20 events except if you are pulling out of those big events.

I’m not a fan of where this is going because if you take Alex de Minaur for example last year, he played his last match at Davis Cup November 25th, and played the first match at United Cup this year December 27th. So you have a month of off-season. How are you gonna take two weeks off? How are you gonna prepare your body for a new season? How are you gonna train enough tennis? You don’t have enough time to do all those things anymore.

I think this is one subject where the ATP has to really think about it and kind of find a solution for it as well. To be honest, I’ve not heard a single player say that they love the two-week Masters events. I don’t even think fans like that. They don’t like waiting for two days for their favorite player to play again. I understand tennis is a business, but I’m not sure that business plan is working very well right now.”