Carlos Alcaraz stands firm on ATP Calendar complaints after Sinner's comments: "Probably a lot of players are not on my side"

Carlos Alcaraz clarified his criticism of the ATP calendar after Jannik Sinner's response. The 21-year-old Spaniard recently competed in the 2024 Laver Cup in Berlin and expressed concerns about the demanding schedule players face.

In a press conference during the tournament, Alcaraz pointed out that there are too many mandatory events, which has led to frequent injuries among players on the tour: “There are a lot of tournaments during the year, mandatory tournaments, and probably during the next few years, there are going to be even more tournaments, more mandatory tournaments. So, I mean, they are probably going to kill us in some way,” said Alcaraz.

Later, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner responded to his colleague's comments. While acknowledging that the schedule is long, the Italian noted that players still have the autonomy to decide which tournaments to play: "It is a very busy schedule this year; there are a lot of tournaments. You don't have to play a tournament. If you want, you can play. If not, you don't play,” commented the 2-time Grand Slam champion.

Today, just one day before the start of the China Open, both Sinner and Alcaraz opted to play in the ATP 500 held in Beijing, where they will be the first and second seeds. Next week, both will once again headline the draw at the Shanghai Masters.

Alcaraz was asked about Sinner’s opinions on player autonomy in choosing their schedule: “I've seen and heard a lot of players complain about the schedule, about the calendar as well. I heard about it in Jannik's press conference here. He talked about it a little bit. He didn’t complain as much, not big about the calendar,” said Alcaraz.

“It also depends on the players. Probably a few players, a lot of players are not on my side; a lot of them are going to be on my side, complaining about the calendar, that it is too tight. It depends on the feelings of each player,” he added.

The world No. 3 also mentioned that spectators need to understand the difference between exhibition matches and official tournaments in terms of the physical demands on players: "I've seen a lot of people talk about my exhibitions this year and complain about the schedule while putting a lot of exhibitions. But I want to say there are different things; we all have to separate exhibitions from the calendar,” said Carlos Alcaraz.