Novak Djokovic believes his peers are sometimes their own worst enemies when it comes to raising concerns about the Tour calendar.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion believes players complaining in public about the length of the calendar isn’t effective and they must invest more of their personal time. In recent days, the topic has been brought back into the limelight during the Asian Swing. Jannik Sinner won the China Open on the same day his next tournament, the Shanghai Masters, began.
Carlos Alcaraz isn’t playing in Shanghai after ‘struggling with some physical issues’ during last week’s Japan Open. On the women’s Tour, Iga Swiatek reignited her criticism of the calendar after suggesting she may skip certain events to protect her health. One of the main talking points has been surrounding the decision to extend the length of the Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 events to more than a week.
“I was against the extension of the duration of the Masters 1000 events. Even when I was in the (ATP Players) Council, I think I was at the time president of the council, I was not supportive of that. I think for the players it’s not good.” Djokovic told reporters in Shanghai.
“For me, at my age right now, to have the days between the tournaments is good. But I think for most of the players it just takes away the days in the schedule, in the calendar. I’m not supportive of that.” He added.
Looking at the other side of the argument, Djokovic acknowledges the reasons for increasing the length of certain tournaments. Supporters argue that expanding draws provides more playing opportunities to players and helps generate more investment. In theory, this enables a higher level of prize money to be given out.
The threat of injury or burnout from playing from January until November is a key issue for many players on the Tour, which is why some have chosen to speak out. However, 38-year-old Djokovic argues that everybody can choose what they want to do with their schedule. A view also shared by Jannik Sinner. He went on to question complaints made by those who also participate in exhibition events.
“I’ve been talking about this topic for so many years,” Djokovic explained.
“The monopoly that has been created in this sport has been very strong for the last three, four decades. And there are people who just don’t want to change things in our sport for the better, in terms of when it comes to the players’ welfare, because everybody works in their own interest. And that’s logical, I guess, business sense.”
Djokovic is the co-founder of the Professional Tennis Player Association (PTPA), which campaigns for players to have a greater say in the sport’s decision-making process. The PTPA has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the ATP and WTA in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Since then, they submitted a request to add Tennis Australia, the All England Lawn Tennis Club, the French Tennis Federation and the USTA as defendants. The organisation claims the move is ‘a necessary step to guarantee accountability from all parties and accelerate long-overdue reform across the entire professional tennis ecosystem.’ The WTA and ATP jointly filed a motion to dismiss the PTPA’s case against them in May.
As for what advice Djokovic would give to others who are complaining about their schedule, he didn’t mince his words.
“As a player and someone who has been playing on the highest level for more than 20 years, I can say that the players are not united enough,” he argues.
“Players are not participating enough when they should be. So they make comments and 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 understanding 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.”
“For that to happen, you need the top players to sit down, roll up their sleeves, and really care a bit more about participating in understanding all of the hot topic.”
