Last week, ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi announced plans to overhaul the ATP’s infrastructure in 2028.
The Italian, who assumed the post in 2020, announced proposed changes to the calendar and scheduling, player compensation, rankings and points distribution across ATP events, tournament formats and the doubles circuit.
Regarding changes to the calendar and rankings structure, Gaudenzi wishes to adjust the system in place in order to place greater emphasis on the biggest events.
Under the new proposals, players would receive a greater amount of ranking points for reaching the latter stages of events.
Furthermore, players can currently replace up to three of their weaker results from ATP Masters 1000 events with better results from ATP 500 or ATP 250 events later in the season. The ATP have proposed scrapping this measure to reduce the pressure to chase points and overplay.
Daniil Medvedev, the world number five, has offered his take on the proposals.
Daniil Medvedev agrees with the ATP’s proposal to place more emphasis on Grand Slams and Masters 1000 events
Medvedev is currently competing at the Almaty Open, where he is the defending champion.
What star players think about the tennis schedule
Ahead of his first match against Japanese player Sho Shimabukuro, Medvedev voiced his support for the ATP’s proposed changes to the Tour’s structure.
“It could be a very long answer, but I’m going to try to keep it short,” Medvedev told reporters in Astana, Kazakhstan, as per Punto de Break.
“I have always been a fan of giving more importance to bigger tournaments, because it’s not ideal when we can potentially play up to 30 tournament weeks in a year.
“I think it would be good if we give huge importance to Grand Slams and Masters, play these tournaments and with the rest you see how it goes.”
The tennis schedule has long been a subject of heated debate, with a number of players offering their stances on the matter.
Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Swiatek, Alex de Minaur, Holger Rune, Jack Draper and Taylor Fritz have all advocated for shorter schedules in the past.
Under the ATP’s new proposals, the schedules of top players may be reduced as there will be less incentive to compete in ATP 500 and 250 events if they perform well at Masters 1000 events.
However, there has been no suggestion of any changes to the extended Masters 1000 events.
The ATP needs to adjust the extended Masters 1000 format
Seven of the nine ATP Masters 1000 events currently take place within an extended format over 12 days; only the Monte Carlo Masters and Paris Masters remain week-long events.
Simply put, these extended formats have left affected Masters 1000 events feeling bloated and dull.
The events feel drawn out and lacking substance, dragging on for an obscene amount of time with less matches scheduled during each day in order to fill up the schedule as a whole.
A change to the structure of these extended events is needed, and the ATP have missed a trick by not including any proposed adjustments to the format in their latest statement.
