 "Italian Tennis player Jannik Sinner. Image: AFP")
Amid the stark criticism that has come toward ATP’s way following Jannik Sinner’s pull-out from the Cincinnati Open final , the president of the body has come out to defend the scheduling. Sinner withdrew from the much-anticipated encounter against Carlos Alcaraz on Monday, citing illness.
As a Sinner vs Alcaraz encounter gets the attention of tennis fans all over the world, its ending the way it did left a lot of people disappointed, and in the aftermath, questions were raised about the schedule. Many fans asserted that the taxing weather conditions may have taken a toll on the world no.1, and the organisers need to be held responsible for enforcing him and others to play in the scorching heat of Cincinnati in August.
Spanish star Alejandro Davidovich Fokina had the same opinion. Davidovich Fokina tweeted: “A Monday final at 3pm in August in Cincinnati, after the whole Toronto-Cincinnati swing, with so many retirements and players dead tired… something needs to change.”
ATP defends ‘scheduling mess’
ATP president Andrea Gaudenzi has responded to numerous complaints about the physically demanding schedule, defending it by stating that multiple factors influence the calendar.
According to Gaudenzi, the rules of the game ensure that one player will be eliminated while another advances deep into a tournament.
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A player eliminated early may not view the continuous succession of tournaments or the hostile weather as a problem, as the schedule allows sufficient time to prepare for the next event. However, the situation is entirely different for a player reaching the final, facing a tighter turnaround.
“Our schedule is complex. It’s a long season, and reaching the highest level week after week is demanding,” he said in a recent interview with SuperTennis. “But this is also an individual sport: one player can be eliminated in the first round, another lifts the trophy after the final.
Subsequently, Gaudenzi admitted that this complexity does not allow any perfect solution to exist, as the game cannot cater solely to the interests of one group of players. Moreover, he also revealed that everything is not under the purview of ATP, but they put their best effort to form the calendar around the four Grand Slam tournaments.
“Finding a solution that works for both ends of the spectrum is never simple, and you can’t build a schedule around just one cohort of players. All cohorts must be considered. We must be clear: the ATP does not control the entire calendar. We work around the Grand Slams, the Davis Cup, and other fixed dates.”
The ATP president also highlighted that the sport allows a player to make his schedule and hence, one can balance the immense workload by picking and choosing which tournaments to play and which ones to skip.