The world of tennis lands this week in Rome for the final Masters 1,000 and WTA 1,000 on clay. A Masters 1,000 in Rome that, like the Madrid Open, will be held for two weeks, which has led to renewed criticism of these two-week Masters 1,000.
The last to speak out on this controversy was the German Alexander Zverev, who in the press conference prior to the tournament stated that he does not understand how if the intention is to shorten the calendar it is getting longer and longer, and he gave De Minaur’s calendar this year as an example. season. “Look, I’ve been on the circuit for ten years and the debate has always been how to make the season shorter. Shortening the season is not just because we like to play tennis. We love playing tennis, but we have to see how we make time to prepare our bodies to play and how we have time to recover our body. Now we have an 11-month season. I spoke with Alex de Minaur about it. He played the Davis Cup finals on November 29 and his first match in the United Cup was on December 29, just a month away. There is not enough time for your body to rest or for you to prepare it. Physical preparation is not just what you train on the court and how much you play tennis. It’s also all the work in the gym, on the court and off it, something you can’t do during the season. They only give us four weeks for our body to rest and prepare, that doesn’t happen in any other sport.”
A Zverev who believes that the two-week Masters 1,000 helps the tennis players in the lower part of the Top-100 rankings but harms the tennis players in the Top-10. “I think the two-week Masters 1,000 is fantastic for tennis players who are between 50 and 100 in the rankings because they have the opportunity to play the main draw of a Masters 1,000. I think it is not good for Top-10 tennis players. It is simple. You have a day of rest and you don’t play every day, but in the end you are not resting. Resting is when you spend time at home, in your bed, with your family, with your dogs or with your children if you have them. That’s resting. A day between games if you are away from home is not resting. If you want to go far in these tournaments like Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz, if you want to reach the semifinals or final of each tournament, you have to spend more time away and work more.”
The Hamburg tennis player also spoke about Rafa Nadal’s possible last season and that legendary match between the two in the semifinals of Roland Garros 2022 that ended with the German’s ankle injury. “I have mixed feelings about that game I played against him, because it is one of the best games I have played in my career, but also the worst way to end a game in my career. It becomes different. His ball is suddenly several kilometers faster. And his footwork and speed, too. It is more difficult to hit a winner, especially on the Philippe Chatrier, which is a big court and has more space. It is very difficult, it is the greatest challenge in tennis, playing against Nadal on that court. I would love to play against him one more time to have a different ending to those memories, I have that in mind. I would love to play against him one more time. I would like to play in a final or a semi-final, in a big match, and it would be fantastic for both of us. We will see how he goes.”
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