Taylor Fritz has never been afraid of voicing his opinion on key topics within his sport.
After all, the American is a measured and intelligent figure both on and off the court, making any claims he makes well thought out.
Recently, Jack Draper and Taylor Fritz spoke about the tennis schedule on social media, with both coming to an agreement on their shared stance.
One of the biggest alterations made this year to appease this issue was to elongate select Masters 1000 tournaments, affording players larger breaks within the calendar rather than during the off-season.
With the ATP president, Andrea Gaudenzi, delivering his thoughts on the success of this project, Fritz has now responded to his claims.
Taylor Fritz responds to the ATP president’s claims about the schedule
The journalist in question admitted that he had proposed a potential solution to Gaudenzi when speaking to him earlier that morning.
He suggested that the top eight players could receive two byes instead of one, which prompted Fritz to suggest that such a bias would not be good for tennis.
The 28-year-old instead claimed: “I think that idea gets very tough with players deciding if they want to play or not play because then it messes up the entry cuts for some players. Some players don’t know if they’re going to get in, if they’re not going to get in if a player starts in what round.
“I don’t think the players should get the chance to start that many rounds ahead. That almost gives the top players too much of an advantage. They only need to win a couple matches and they’ll already be in the quarters or the semis.”
He then outlined his stance: “I think for me, my standpoint was I didn’t actually know what to expect when we switched to the two-week Masters. For me, as I said before, I didn’t necessarily hate it this year because I felt like I needed a lot of times that day off in order to play the next day. I wouldn’t have made the semis of Toronto this year if we played back-to-back every single day. My knee would not have been able. I couldn’t have kept up with playing every day. In that aspect, I think it helped me.
“My stance has always kind of been I’d prefer one week, but if we’re just going to use that time that we saved and it not being a two-week, to just play other tournaments, then what’s the point?
“I’d love for the Masters to be condensed back to what they were to create more weeks off in the calendar for the players. But if we’re going to condense the two weeks back to one, then just add another tournament the next week, then I don’t see what the point is really.”
What other players have complained about two-week Masters 1000 events?
It seems that, after Fritz called for the two-week Masters to be reduced in August, he has not wavered from that standpoint.
However, he is not alone in his distaste for the revamped system.
Novak Djokovic was one vocal critic, who noted: “I don’t enjoy the two-week Masters events anymore. It’s just way too long for me. I’d like to play more of the other tournaments, but I just, we have currently, unofficially, 12 Grand Slams a year, when you think about it.”
Alexander Zverev echoed that sentiment, adding: “I am not a fan of where this is going.”
It seems there is a general consensus among many of the top players regarding this hot topic, and it will be interesting to see if the ATP bows to change in 2026.
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