Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis has called for changes to be made to the tennis schedule as he asserted that it is difficult to follow the sport as a fan.<\/p>\n
In 2025, a host of high-profile players on the ATP and WTA tours voiced concerns about the tennis calendar, with the length of the season, the number of mandatory events and the expansion of several ATP\/WTA 1000 events to 12 days some of the biggest issues raised.<\/p>\n
Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Alexander Zverev, Jack Draper, Taylor Fritz and Casper Ruud are among the top players who have spoken out.<\/p>\n
ATP world No 1 Alcaraz<\/a> and WTA world No 2 Swiatek<\/a>, who have each won six Grand Slam titles, have been two of the strongest and most frequent critics.<\/p>\n In an exclusive interview, Tennis365 asked Baghdatis if he would like to see adjustments to the schedule given the criticism from players.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to see changes,\u201d said the former world No 8.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s gonna be hard to change, but it has to because, for me also as a fan \u2014 when I have to follow a tournament in Dubai, at the same week there is a tournament in South America, and at the same time there is a tournament in North America \u2014 as a fan, I find it difficult.<\/p>\n \u2018Alcaraz & Sinner\u2019s rivalry is very similar to Federer, Nadal, Djokovic \u2013 but something is missing\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Ex-Slam finalist gets honest on Novak Djokovic Grand Slam hopes as he issues retirement verdict<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAnd I see, let\u2019s say Dubai, it\u2019s a big tournament, and Sinner is playing in Dubai, and you have Alcaraz playing in Sao Paolo \u2014 it\u2019s just an example. And I\u2019m like, why is the number one player in the world and the number two player in the world playing two tournaments at the same week on different surfaces at the same time?<\/p>\n \u201cWhy aren\u2019t they at the same tournament? So it\u2019s gonna be hard to change because a lot of tournaments, or countries, might lose the opportunities. But you don\u2019t see another sport being like that, especially an individual sport.\u201d<\/p>\n Baghdatis has also told Tennis365 that the schedule is not a new problem and that he \u201chates\u201d players criticising it for one reason.<\/p>\n \u201cI really do think it is a problem,\u201d the Cypriot said. \u201cI think that it\u2019s been a while that it\u2019s a problem, but I hate players complaining about it.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the reason why I hate when they complain about it is not because they complain, it\u2019s because they have a union, they have an association, they have the PTPA now, that is there and that is fighting for them. Their voice is very strong and they can go to the PTPA and they can talk with them and find ways to make things better.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, in our days, we didn\u2019t have that association, so we could have complained as much as we wanted \u2014 nobody heard us. But right now, they do have it.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have whatever they need to be able to go and negotiate with the tours and the tournaments. But they don\u2019t do it, they only complain through media and interviews and all that. That\u2019s where I find it a bit strange.\u201d<\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n READ NEXT: Daniil Medvedev suggests players agree with his \u2018asking for trouble\u2019 Australian Open comments<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Grand Slam finalist reveals big problem with the tennis schedule after Alcaraz & other stars complained<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis has called for changes to be made to the tennis schedule as he asserted that it is difficult to follow the sport as a fan. In 2025, a host of high-profile players on the ATP and WTA tours voiced concerns about the tennis calendar, with the length of the season, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What did Marcos Baghdatis say about the tennis calendar?<\/h2>\n
Exclusive Interviews<\/h2>\n
Why Marcos Baghdatis \u2018hates\u2019 players complaining about the schedule<\/h2>\n