“Paris was right.” Four days after the end of the Masters 1000 in Paris, one of the few to still be played over one week rather than two, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas denounced on X (ex-Twitter) the new format of tournaments in this category.
“The two-week Masters 1000 have become a chore,” said the 12th player in the world on the social network, in reaction to a video by the former American world No. 1 Andy Roddick who also denounced the extension of the duration Masters 1000, the most important tournaments after the four Grand Slams.
For Tsitsipas, three-time winner of the Monte-Carlo Masters 1000, a week long like that of Paris, “the players do not benefit from the necessary recovery or training time, with matches constantly and no room for work intense off the court.”
Due to the extension to two weeks of most of the Masters 1000, “the quality (of the game, Editor's note) has dropped”. “Paris was right, everything was over in a week. Exciting and easy to follow, just what you should do,” insisted the Greek, eliminated in the quarter-finals in the French capital.
Organized in March, the first two Masters 1000 of the season (Indian Wells and Miami) have long been spread over two weeks. But what was an exception is about to become the norm, with the extension to 12 days of competition of the Masters 1000 in Rome, Madrid and Shanghai from 2023 and that planned for 2025 of the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati and Canada.
Among the nine Masters 1000 of the 2025 season, only those of Monte-Carlo in the spring and Paris in the fall will retain the historic format of a week of competition. For Tsitsipas, “if the goal is to lighten the calendar”, the extension of most of the Masters 1000 is “a step backwards”. “Sometimes, we have the impression that they (the ATP, Editor’s note) are repairing what was not broken,” said the Greek. A criticism to which Stanislas Wawrinka did not fail to respond, recalling in a video dating from two years ago, the words of the 12th in the world praising this format over two weeks. But hey, only fools don't change their minds!
