World No. 4 Taylor Fritz slams ATP schedule as Sinner and Alcaraz miss the Canadian Open

Once again, the ATP Tour is the object of criticism due to their jam-packed year-round schedule, in which the top players are obligated to play in mandatory events. Especially as stars such as Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic and Jack Draper have withdrawn from the Toronto Masters, which takes place two weeks after Wimbledon. World No. 4 Taylor Fritz was clear on his issues with the calendar.

Fritz, who is now the top seed in the draw for the Canadian Open, said in a press conference ahead of the event, per Tennis Gazette, that “pretty much all the players for a long time have been asking for the season to be shorter, but all we are doing is just lengthening it, adding more stuff, we’re adding more, like, longer tournaments.”

The American star, who reached the semifinals in London and is hoping to defend a final in the upcoming US Open, said that it was “insane” how the ATP keeps “just adding stuff to the calendar over and over again.”

He said how it is “funny” how “we find ways to shorten the schedule to make room for other tournaments, but we can’t find room to shorten the schedule just for there to be nothing. I’d love to see it go back to just two weeks and maybe we can have an extra [week]. I don’t know. But it’s a lot of tennis. There’s a lot of tennis upcoming.”

Jannik Sinner touches his elbow during Wimbledon ( Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Alcaraz, Sinner, Draper all dealing with injuries

The Canadian Open, which starts on July 27, is the first big event of the summer-hard court swing of the season leading to the US Open. However, this time, the Masters will be without tennis’ current biggest stars, as Alcaraz, Sinner and Draper all are dealing with injuries.

Sinner confirmed he is going to take time to recover from an elbow injury he sustained while playing Wimbledon fourth round against Grigor Dimitrov, after failing in one of the first games in the match. However, he was able to overcome it and won the tournament.

On the other hand, Jack Draper is also dealing with an arm injury, while Alcaraz confirmed on Monday that he is struggling with “small muscle issues” after “many consecutive weeks of competition without rest.”

Alcaraz has the World No. 1 in sight

Jannik Sinner has been World No. 1 since June 2024, Carlos Alcaraz has an opportunity to fight for the top spot in the rankings during the American swing. While Sinner has 3,200 points to defend, Alcaraz has only 50 points, which puts him in a good position to climb one spot. However, it will all depend on who has the better run during the upcoming tournaments.