Aryna Sabalenka joins Carlos Alcaraz’s protest. Is Jannik Sinner changing his mind?
For some time now, male and female tennis players have been complaining about overly packed schedules: the sheer number of matches risks compromising the athletes’ health, as evidenced by the numerous injuries in recent months. Carlos Alcaraz recently warned the ATP: “This is impossible; we’re seeing a lot of players get injured and burn out. If they don’t do anything about it, we’ll see even more of this in the future. In the future, I’ll be taking long breaks. Maybe not four months, but a month or two, skipping some tournaments, because it’s impossible to play them all.”
“I think they’re adding more and more major tournaments. You know, in a way, they’re forcing us to play. You can say no, skip one or two. You can decide your own schedule, but with some Masters 1000s and Grand Slam tournaments, we end up playing for 40 weeks if we have to participate in all the mandatory tournaments the ATP requires us to play,” said the Murcia native.
Aryna Sabalenka shares the same view: “I’d like to see changes to the schedule and the elimination of mandatory tournaments so players can decide what’s best for their health. It’s become extremely intense. Especially when you play at Carlos’s level, with such consistency, it’s very hard on the body. If they don’t reduce the number of mandatory tournaments, we’ll have to sacrifice points, our ranking, or something else to protect our bodies.”
In 2024, Jannik Sinner had tried to calm things down (“The season is long, but we players can choose which tournaments to play and which not to. We don’t have to play. If you don’t want to play a tournament, you don’t enter it”), but it’s not certain he still feels the same way, especially given the injuries he’s suffered recently.
The ATP No. 1 is currently sidelined with a knee injury and was forced to miss the US Open. Sinner is undergoing treatment at J Medical, but his rehabilitation will take a little longer, and it’s not certain he’ll participate in the ATP 500 in Beijing scheduled for late September.
Jannik Sinner is on the entry list, but everything will depend on the condition of his knee. “I’m hearing reassuring news from Italy,” tournament director Lars Graff told *La Gazzetta dello Sport*. “Jannik is working hard and is managing his recovery wisely. Unfortunately, tennis often presents these kinds of unexpected setbacks, but fortunately, it’s nothing serious, and we’re waiting for him with open arms. The Chinese fans are passionate about him: he’s so calm, kind, and polite to everyone, and he’s always enjoyed his time here.”
