"I'm not a fan of this extension of the Masters 1000": Casper Ruud once again criticises tennis schedule

Norway’s Casper Ruud has once again raised concern about the tennis schedule. Tennis world seems to be getting united in criticizing the stiff schedule which has, in result, become the reason for players suffering from injuries as well.

The discussion started to gain momentum in 2024 when the current world number one Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz criticized the schedule. "I've seen and I've heard a lot of players complain about the schedule, about the calendar as well," said Alcaraz. "So I'm talking about myself, that the schedule, it's been so tight since the first week of January till the last week of November. We have to talk about it ourselves and we have to do something about it."

Recently, the former world number one and legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic has raised concerns about the stiff schedule as well. Djokovic, who featured at the Shanghai Masters and was knocked out in the semifinals by Poland’s Valentin Vacherot in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, admitted the tennis schedule remains tough, but also highlighted that the players are not ‘united enough’ to address the problem.

“As a player and someone that has been playing on the highest level for more than 20 years, I can say that the players are not united enough,” said Djokovic. “Players are not participating enough when they should be. So they make the comments and they complain, and then they go away. And then if something is wrong, after a certain amount of time they come back again. But you have to invest the time, you have to invest energy yourself, not your agent, not your team, not your parents, not anybody, yourself, to dedicate yourself to understand how the system works, to understand what are the things that can be done to be reversed, to be improved in terms of the players’ interest.”

Now, Norway’s Ruud has once again criticised the tennis schedule. Ruud recently featured in the Spanish media outlet Punto de Break, where he criticised, in particular, the length of the tennis masters. In previous years, the ATP 1000 events were organised over one week.

However, recently, that has been changed in some events as they are now being organised over a period of 12 days which means there is less time for players to take a break between events. Rudd admitted that while players are earning more money, but according to him, the competition’s length does not make much sense to him. Ruud stated that with tournaments now stretching to two weeks, it means that players are now spending more time away from home. Ruud stated that according to him, the tennis governing bodies, such as ATP and the players are going in the opposite directions.

"Personally, I'm not a fan of this extension of the Masters 1000,” said Ruud. “It means you spend more time away from home. Monte-Carlo and Paris perfectly illustrate the speed and intensity of the Masters 1000. As a tennis fan, I find it more exciting when there's as much intensity and demanding matches from the start. But in theory, this two-week format should help the sport, so for us, more revenue and prize money. I understand that perspective.”

He continued by saying: “I've experienced both scenarios: winning a Masters 1000 over two weeks and losing in the first round. In both cases, it feels too long to me. If you lose in the first round at Indian Wells, you have Miami in two weeks. That's two weeks of expenses between accommodation, food, and team salaries. And you have to stay in the United States. Of course, we receive financial compensation in the form of bonuses at the end of the year. But we need to play to earn them. I feel like the ATP is going in one direction and the players in another.”