Jannik Sinner Defends Exhibitions Amidst Criticism Due to Players’ Hectic Schedule Complaints

Jannik Sinner, for the second consecutive time, ended the Six Kings Slam in his favor. Although the final of the first edition was a tight affair, this time, the Italian swept past Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets.

At the press conference later, Sinner defended the exhibition tournaments. Complaints about the 11-month calendar have grown in recent years as ATP keeps coming up with rules that players believe are forcing them to continue playing. Take the new ATP 500 rule, according to which players have to feature in at least four tournaments of this level, including one after the US Open.

Additionally, from this season onward, the Cincinnati Masters and the Canadian Open will be played over a span of 12 days, joining five other Masters 1000 events. Even someone like Novak Djokovic, who has been a part of the tour since 2003, is not at all a fan of the two-week Masters 1000 tournaments.

But despite complaining about the hectic schedule and even claiming once that the schedule is going to “kill” the players, the Spaniard keeps participating in exhibition events. Those defending the long schedule argue that Alcaraz, instead of heading for exhibitions, should simply focus on rest and recovery.

But Alcaraz has always snapped back, saying exhibitions are not at all like the tour-level tournaments because in the former, the environment is a lot more relaxed. Like Alcaraz, Sinner- who doesn’t complain much about the calendar- defended the exhibitions.

It’s very important to play tennis in different ways. For us, having weeks dedicated to amateurs, days dedicated to children, is hugely important: children are the future, they’re the generation that will one day arrive. We want the sport to grow, and sometimes making small changes and changing the rules is important to see how far things can go.

Six Kings Slam is an exhibition that has attracted tennis fans from all over the world and made global headlines because of the prize money it offers to the players. The total prize pool is $13,500,000, with the participation fee being $1.5 million, while the winner gets $6 million– the highest prize money in the history of tennis (official or unofficial). No ATP-sanctioned tournament pays this much.

Mark Petchey lauds Jannik Sinner’s serve at the Six Kings Slam

Emma Raducanu‘s former coach, Mark Petchey, has warned the ATP tour that Jannik Sinner has been mastering the serve and that their difficulties against the World No.2 would be compounded if Sinner continues to serve the way he did in the Six Kings Slam final against Carlos Alcaraz.

That serve is a nightmare for everybody going forward. How do you get back to neutral? It’s going short and wide. You are outside the doubles line.

Mark Petchey said on Netflix when Sinner was 4-3, 15-0 in the second set

The four-time Grand Slam champion is in Vienna, gearing up for the ATP 500 event he won in 2023 by defeating Daniil Medvedev. Sinner will start his campaign against Daniel Altmaier, against whom he holds a 2-1 head-to-head edge, losing the lone match in the second round of the 2023 French Open.

Sinner had skipped the Vienna Open last year. Alcaraz won’t be playing any ATP 500 event this week. The World No.1 will only meet Sinner next if they both reach the Paris Masters final.

Before Riyadh, Sinner was in Shanghai for the penultimate Masters 1000 of the season, where he was also bidding to defend his title, but his campaign ended in disappointment as cramps forced him to retire mid-match in the third round. The last tour-level title Sinner won was the China Open by breezing past Learner Tien.

Also read: Alexander Bublik Demands Change in Schedule from the ATP Tour After Holger Rune’s Devastating Injury

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