Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic have made the decision to miss the Canadian Open once again and it should a wake-up call for the ATP Tour.
Sinner is set to miss the Masters event for the second year in a row, while Djokovic has not played the Canadian tournament for seven years now.
“After carefully considering all the factors together with my team, we have made the difficult decision to withdraw from Montreal,” said Sinner in a statement released by Tennis Canada.
“It is never easy to miss such an important event, but we believe this is the right decision to prioritise my health. I’m disappointed not to be there, but I look forward to returning to Montreal in the future.”
The Canadian Open took place two weeks after Wimbledon last year and the authorities changed that to three weeks for the 2026 tournament, but that is clearly not enough.
The top players are clearly not interested in starting their North American hardcourt swing so early and that should absolutely push the ATP Tour into a major change.
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The Canadian Open should either be moved back further or pushed off the calendar entirely at this point, because a Masters event without the top two seeds, and a 24-time Grand Slam champion is simply not good enough.
While Carlos Alcaraz’s omission cannot be helped, Sinner and Djokovic have had around 20 days to recover for the tournament since their last match at Wimbledon.
If they were truly keen to play the tournament, they surely would have.
The most worrying aspect of the situation is Sinner was given a very good reason to play the Canadian Open this year.
The World No 1 has won the first five Masters events of the year and could have become the first player in tennis history to win all nine in a calendar year.
The fact that he opted out of achieving something that would likely never be achieved again just goes to show how gruelling the tennis calendar has become for the players.
Another reason for their withdrawals could be the extended nature of the Masters event. It would be interesting to see if Sinner and Djokovic would be more inclined to play the Canadian Open if it reverted back to its one-week format.
Both men have been outspoken about change to a two-week format for Masters events, with only the Paris Masters and the Monte Carlo Masters taking place over the traditional week.
In 2025, Sinner offered his verdict on the Masters expansion.
“My personal view, I love the one-week events. 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,” he said.
“And if one good seeded player loses, the next match is an incredible match still, and you have the quarterfinals and you know exactly when you buy the tickets.”
Djokovic, meanwhile, has a similar view on Masters events currently.
“To be quite frank with you, I don’t enjoy the two-week Masters events anymore,” he said last year. “It’s just way too long for me. My focus is mostly on the Slams, and I have said that before.”
If something does not change with the tennis calendar, the top players will continue to miss the biggest events in the sport.
The post The ATP Tour needs to make a crucial change after what has just happened to Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic appeared first on Tennis365.
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