A growing contingent of high-profile players on the ATP Tour have made it clear that they are not a fan of the 12-day Masters 1000 tournaments.
As part of ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi’s OneVision plan, seven of the nine Masters 1000 tournaments have been expanded to 12 days: Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome, Canada, Cincinnati and Shanghai. The singles main draws at these events now feature 96 players.
Monte Carlo and Paris are the only Masters events that still have the traditional single-week, 56-player format.
Here, we look at the criticisms seven big names have levelled at the controversial new Masters 1000 format.
Jannik Sinner – “We lose a little bit of the days of the week”
World No 1 Jannik Sinner became the latest star to weigh in on the topic after reaching the final at the 2025 Cincinnati Masters.
“My personal view, I love the one-week events,” the Italian said.
“I love it when you see that the tournament in Monaco, for example, you have for Monte Carlo, you have this one-week event, and you have the first-round matches which are incredibly good. And if one good seeded-player loses, the next match is an incredible match still, and you have the quarter-finals and you know exactly when you buy the tickets.
“You have the quarter-finals and then you have the semi-final, which is Saturday, and then you have finally Sunday. And now I lost a little bit of the view of when does actually a finalist [play], because it used to be always Sunday.
“Now, here [in Cincinnati] it’s Monday. In Toronto, it’s Wednesday or Thursday. So it’s difficult even for us players. We lose a little bit of the days of the week, I would say.”
Carlos Alcaraz – “One-week format is better for tennis”
During the 2025 Barcelona Open, Carlos Alcaraz declared: “The one week ones are better. Some will think that in two weeks there are days of rest, but that is not the case.
“You train, you have to mentally prepare for the game, prepare for it… you’re not resting, really. It’s two full weeks. That’s why I prefer the one-week Masters 1000. For me, it’s better for tennis.”
Novak Djokovic – “I’m personally, overall, not a fan”
In May 2023, Novak Djokovic said: “It depends really from which angle you’re looking at it. I mean, I’m personally, overall, not a fan of that because I feel like we already have four Grand Slams a year that take two plus one week eventually if you go all the way with training.
“You spend 10 to 12 weeks only in Grand Slams. Now we’re going to have eight out of nine 1000 events be the same for next year: pretty much a two-week event.
“As I said it depends from which perspective you are looking at. If you’re a fan, of course an extra day of seeing the top players is great because you have more tennis in your city. I understand from that point of view.
“You mentioned that it might be advantage because of the recovery. Yes, it could be the case in that given tournament.
“But then if you play all the big events on clay, for example, you played Indian Wells and Miami, that is also kind of a month duration for two events, then you play Monte Carlo, Barcelona, then back to back Rome and Madrid, if you play really well and go all the way, you’re maybe not the freshest for Roland Garros.”
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Alexander Zverev – “I have not heard a single player say that they love the two-week Masters events”
Appearing on the Nothing Major podcast, Alexander Zverev said: “You have the nine Masters 1000 events, which are mandatory; most of them are two-week-long events now, except Monte-Carlo and Paris Bercy — which I think are the best two weeks now on the ATP calendar.
“I think for a fan and every single tennis player, Paris Bercy was awesome last year. You get there, you play your five matches, and you get out of there.
“You do not have to stick around or practice in between matches. That is how Masters events used to be and I think all the players loved it.
“I am not a fan of where this is going, because if you take Alex de Minaur, for example. He played his last match at Davis Cup on the 25th November, and he played his first match of the United Cup on the 27th December.
“So you have a month of off-season. How are you going to take two weeks off and prepare your body for a new season? You don’t have the time to do those things any more.
“I think this is one subject where the ATP has to really think about it and find a solution about it, and to be honest, I have not heard a single player say that they love the two-week Masters events. I don’t even think the fans like that.
“They don’t like waiting for two days for their favourite player to play again. I understand tennis is a business, but I am not sure that business plan is working very well right now.”
Jack Draper – “The big thing is, I think the quality can suffer a little bit”
During the 2025 Madrid Masters, Jack Draper said: “I think the way the tour is at the moment and these two-week events and less weeks to be at home, less weeks to train, it just seems like you’re on a constant rabbit wheel, and there’s no way off it.
“I think that’s scary to think about as a player. You know, to think that, look, I know we’re earning good money, and we’re playing in front of great crowds, and something I love to do, but it’s mentally very, very taxing.
“[It’s] something that I hope that potentially the ATP and the tours come together at some point and, I don’t know, clean it up a little bit, I suppose, to make it so that there is a bit more space to train and to work on our bodies.
“I think for me, the big thing is, I think the quality can suffer a little bit. I think there’s a lot of top players who are in and out with their performances, and it’s just purely because it’s just overplaying.
“People look on TV and they think, ‘Oh, that was a bad performance’ and stuff. It is mentally difficult every day to show up and to give it a hundred percent. And, you know, we have lives as well, there’s things going on off the court all the time. We’re not robots.
“I think it is a scary proposition what’s ahead, you know, the fact that it is a long career. But then again, you know, I don’t have to play until I’m 35, I can do everything and get the best out of myself, and I’ll stop when I feel like I’m ready.”
Taylor Fritz – “If we can lengthen the off-season…”
Speaking during the 2025 Canadian Open, Taylor Fritz said: “To be honest, the way I see it, if we’re going to have this stretch of three weeks, if we’re going to go back to how it used to be, one week each, if it’s going to mean we’re going to add another tournament, then I would be against it.
“But if it’s going to mean that we make these Masters 1000s one week and we can lengthen the off-season, to give those extra weeks back at the end of the season, and give us a six/seven week off-season rather than a four week off-season, that would be massive and I would be way in favour of doing the one week events.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas – “A backwards move”
In a post on Twitter in November 2024, Stefanos Tsitsipas wrote: “The two-week Masters 1000s have turned into a drag. The quality has definitely dropped.
“Players aren’t getting the recovery or training time they need, with constant matches and no space for the intense work off the court.
“It’s ironic that the @atptour committed to this format without knowing if it could actually improve the schedule, but the quality likewise. Paris got it right, done in a week. Exciting and easy to follow. Just how it’s supposed to be.
“If the goal was to ease the calendar, extending every 1000 to two weeks is a backwards move. Sometimes, it feels like they’re fixing what wasn’t broken.”
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The post Djokovic, Alcaraz, Sinner, Zverev: 7 top ATP stars who have criticised 12-day Masters format appeared first on Tennis365.
