Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev have never been natural allies, but this week they are making the same argument about the ATP calendar. Alcaraz blamed the tour for the injuries that have hit its best players. Zverev, now the world No. 1, says the fix is “relatively simple”.
Alcaraz: “They are pushing us too much”
Alcaraz’s complaint came at the Shanghai Masters, after Jannik Sinner ended his season early. “One of the reasons we had to see the players who are getting injured, they [ATP officials] are pushing us too much out of the line sometimes to play a lot of tournaments, to play a lot of matches,” he said. “It’s getting in the wrong direction. I just wish Jannik the best for these months, just to be in good shape for the next season.”
It was a pointed intervention from a player who has felt the cost himself. Alcaraz was out for four and a half months after a wrist injury at the Barcelona Open, and he has since suggested he will play a more limited schedule.
Zverev: shorten the season
Speaking at the Vienna Open, Zverev did not name a culprit, but he offered a remedy. “I think the solution is relatively simple. I’ve said it several times: We should shorten the season by two or three weeks to give our bodies more time to rest and recover,” he said, in comments carried by Tennis365.
He then described his own calendar. “This year, if I play the Davis Cup, we’ll practically be competing until December. And if I had played in the United Cup, I would have had to play my first match at the end of December. I’m not going to play in the United Cup because it’s simply impossible for me.” And his frustration is of long standing: “I’ve been saying the same thing for ten years, and nothing changes.”
The difference between the two views
The two players agree on the diagnosis: too many matches, too little recovery. Where they differ is in what they would change, and who should change it.
Alcaraz puts the responsibility on the tour. His comments point at the number of tournaments players are expected to play, and the implicit message is that the ATP’s structure is producing injuries. Zverev’s solution is narrower and more practical. He does not ask for fewer events; he asks for a shorter season, so that the off-season is long enough to recover from one campaign and prepare for the next.
Zverev also speaks from a different position. Tennis365 reports that his quarter-final win over Arthur Fery in Vienna was the 75th match of his season, more than anyone else on the tour, and that he is still expected to play the Paris Masters, the ATP Finals and the Davis Cup, with the Six Kings Slam to follow from 27 to 30 December and the Brisbane International starting on 3 January. The man asking for a shorter season is also the player who has used the most of it. Alcaraz, by contrast, spent months on the sidelines and has said he will play less.
A familiar argument
Neither argument is new. Earlier this month we set out how Alcaraz, Fils and Djokovic read the Sinner injury differently; Zverev’s contribution adds a number to the debate: two or three weeks.
It is also a debate with a deadline. The Paris Masters starts on 2 November and the ATP Finals run from 15 to 22 November, so the season has weeks left. The next week will show whether the world No. 1’s call for a shorter season is heard by the people who set the calendar, or joins ten years of similar remarks.
What to watch
Zverev will be world No. 1 on Monday, and his voice carries more weight than it did a year ago. A year-end No. 1 who asks for a shorter season is harder to dismiss as a player complaining about his workload, especially when Alcaraz is making the same point from a different angle. Whether that pressure is enough to change the calendar is another question, and Zverev’s own words, “nothing changes”, suggest he is not convinced.
Zverev’s earlier remarks about the ranking are covered in Zverev says he would be “an idiot” to claim he matched Sinner.
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