Frances Tiafoe Labels Canadian Open “Weird” and “Garbage” for Adopting New Format

Frances Tiafoe to open his Canadian Open campaign against the winner between Daniel Altmaier and Yusuke Watanuki.

Frances Tiafoe Labels Canadian Open “Weird” and “Garbage” for Adopting New Format

Frances Tiafoe (image via Instagram @bigfoe1998)

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Frances Tiafoe is set to compete at the Canadian Open following his impressive quarter-finals run at the Washington Open. The American star dropped to World No.12 in the ATP rankings following the run. However, he has branded the Canadian Open schedule weird and garbage following their adoption of a new format.

Previously, the Canadian Open singles draw only featured 56 players and ran just seven days. But, currently, the ATP Masters 1000 tournament features 96 players and runs for 12 days, almost the 14-day format of Grand Slam events. This will now see the Canadian Open final fall on Thursday (August 7), rather than the usual weekend final.

Also, before the tournament, the likes of Jannik Sinner, Jack Draper, Carlos Alcaraz, and Novak Djokovic, among a host of stars, pulled out of the event due to injury and other personal reasons. Their move has highlighted the jam-packed schedule of the tour and the increase in the days of the seven of the nine Masters tournaments.

During Tiafoe’s press conference, he was asked how he considered a Masters 1000 final being played on a Thursday. The former World No.10 revealed that it felt weird and the tournament looks like garbage:

It is what it is. I like that it’s a bit shorter than Madrid, Rome. But it’s weird because the final is on a Thursday. That’s garbage.

He then went on to say that he looks forward to how the event will be. While stressing the fact that the tournament is closer to his home country (the United States of America) and if peradventure he doesn’t go far in the tournament, he will return to his country immediately:

But yeah, I mean, I guess I’m ready to get going and see how that goes. The 10-day events are tough, but I think it will be easier since I’m so close to the States. Something goes wrong, I’m a quick flight home. It’s not like when I’m stuck in Europe and playing on red clay and people speaking different languages and s—. It’s better to kind of be in the States, so for sure, I’m really happy. Hopefully put up some good results going into the Open. That’s kind of what matters.

Meanwhile, Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas are the two top players who have criticized the new Masters format. The Spaniard was critical of it in April following his splendid run at the Monte Carlo Masters, which ran a 7-day format. In the women’s circuit, Aryna Sabalenka withdrew from the Canadian Open after her run at the Wimbledon Championship.

Frances Tiafoe to defend several points at the North American hard-court swing

Frances Tiafoe has only been to three quarter-finals this season. After beginning the season roughly, he earned his first at the Houston Open, before earning his best French Open run by reaching the last eight. At the Washington Open, he claimed his first top 20 win of the season by beating Flavio Cobolli to reach the quarter-finals.

Frances Tiafoe
Frances Tiafoe (via X/ATP)

However, Tiafoe crashed out of the Washington Open after losing to Ben Shelton 6(2)-7, 4-6. He will now aim to improve his record at the Canadian Open as he has not gotten past the third round of the event in the last two editions. Seeded seventh he has won only five times at Toronto in eleven matches.

He received a first-round bye at the ATP 1000 tournament, which will see him kick off his campaign at the tournament against the winner between Daniel Altmaier and qualifier Yusuke Watanuki. He’s in the same half as Taylor Fritz, who is entering the tournament following his semi-final run at the Wimbledon Championship.

At this year’s North American hard-court swing, Tiafoe has a significant number of points to defend. Last year, he exited in the first round of the Canadian Open, but went on to reach the final of the Cincinnati Open before losing to Jannik Sinner. He also did well to reach the quarter-finals of the US Open before falling to Fritz.

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