At the same time, Jannik Sinner<\/a> and Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> went on record, on behalf of a group of leading players from the men\u2019s and women\u2019s top 10s, in calling for more prize money<\/a> from the grand slam tournaments and criticising the lack of progress in discussions on player welfare. The 22-year-old Rune, who was making a late push for the ATP Finals, tore his achilles tendon<\/a>, a horrific injury that sparked further concern around the tennis calendar and led to Jack Draper<\/a> being particularly vocal in calling for change, as the British No 1 continues to nurse his own left arm injury<\/a>. <\/p>\n And this all came as the four grand slam tournaments, as well as the ATP and WTA, faced legal action<\/a> from the breakaway Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) , with a lawsuit citing \u201csystemic abuse, anti-competitive practices, and a blatant disregard for player welfare\u201d. <\/p>\n These issues \u2013 schedule, player welfare, prize money \u2013 are nothing new. Indeed, with the 2026 season now underway and the Australian Open around the corner<\/a>, the same discussions would have taken place last year, the year before that, and so on. The presence of the legendary Venus Williams in the Australian Open main draw, after the 45-year-old accepted a wildcard into the tournament<\/a>, is perhaps symbolic of a sport that often takes its time to alter course. <\/p>\n Many point to the fact that tennis has seven governing bodies, in the ATP, WTA, ITF and the four historic grand slam events in Wimbledon<\/a>, Roland Garros<\/a>, the Australian Open<\/a> and the US Open<\/a>, mean getting everyone around the same table is challenging enough. <\/p>\n But the pressure is on from dissatisfied players. Take, for example, the feeling of \u201cdisappointment\u201d <\/a>as the Australian Open announced record prize money for the 2026 tournament, a rise that was in line with the increase in Tennis Australia\u2019s revenues from the previous year. Players want to be compensated with a greater slice and, in a letter to the grand slams, have outlined their target of reaching 22 per cent of tournament revenues by 2030. <\/p>\n The group of leading players also feel their calls for greater consultation in tournament matters, such as scheduling and the new Sunday starts at three of their four grand slams, as well as contributions to pensions, have been ignored. When speaking to The Independent last season, Draper said that while it may look like players are complaining, they are \u201cadvocating for positive change\u201d<\/a>. But tension is rising.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Iga Swiatek said the season was \u2018too long\u2019 as several players cut their campaigns short last year (Getty)<\/p>\n The grand slams insist they are \u201calways open to having constructive discussions\u201d for the \u201cfuture success\u201d of tennis, but the ongoing legal case filed by the PTPA was a stumbling block for further talks at the US Open in September, after the four grand slam tournaments were added to the antitrust lawsuit. <\/p>\n Since then, the group, which accused the sport\u2019s governing bodies of running a \u201ccartel\u201d through its \u201cmonopolistic control\u201d, reached an agreement to settle with Tennis Australia, the organisers of the Australian Open, the details of which are undisclosed. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic<\/a> has cut all ties with the PTPA, the body he co-founded in 2020<\/a>, due to \u201congoing concerns regarding transparency, governance, and the way my voice and image have been represented\u201d. The ATP and WTA both strongly rejected the PTPA\u2019s claims and have been joined by Wimbledon<\/a>, Roland Garros<\/a> and the US Open in filing claims to dismiss the lawsuit. <\/p>\n Frustration around \u2018insane\u2019 schedule<\/p>\n \u201cTennis is a sport where the players are the prize asset,\u201d Draper<\/a> said last autumn, as star players on both the ATP and WTA were running on empty<\/a> and frustration around the schedule was once again rising to the surface. In an interview with The Tennis Podcast<\/a>, Draper was particularly vocal in his criticism of the expanded 12-day Masters events. \u201cI haven\u2019t heard one player say they like it,\u201d Draper said. <\/p>\n Draper, 24, highlighted how \u201clonely\u201d the 12-day Masters had become, rather than physically demanding. \u201cWhen you\u2019re out there, five matches in seven days is so much easier than seven matches in 14 days because there\u2019s so much dead time, there\u2019s so much waiting around.\u201d <\/p>\n The head of the ATP, Andrea Gaudenzi, has made the 12-day Masters (currently seven of the nine, with Monte Carlo and Paris the exceptions) a key pillar of the ATP\u2019s OneVision plan. He said tournaments will be able to increase their revenues by selling more tickets, allowing them to invest in infrastructure and for the players to receive a greater share. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n The ATP says the new 12-day Masters will lead to more investment in tournaments like the Italian Open (Getty)<\/p>\n While answering questions on the \u201ccomplex\u201d calendar in an interview published by the ATP<\/a>, Gaudenzi urged top players to commit to a \u201csmart calendar\u201d, prioritising the top events \u2013 the grand slams, Masters 1000s and a few 500s \u2013 rather than \u201cplaying down\u201d. The ATP has meanwhile cut the mandatory number of 500 events from five to four ahead of 2026. The WTA says player welfare is a \u201ctop priority\u201d and says it has listened to complaints from the players on the calendar. <\/p>\n Players are increasingly taking matters into their own hands, however. Aryna Sabalenka has outlined that she will continue skipping some mandatory WTA 500 events<\/a>, taking a penalty in rankings points in the process, in order to stay fresh for the grand slams and 1000s. <\/p>\n Sabalenka labelled the schedule and mandatory requirements as \u201cinsane\u201d, with top players on the WTA mandated to play at least six WTA 500s as well as the four grand slams and 10 WTA 1000 tournaments. Sabalenka, as the No 1 in the world, is at least in a position to be more flexible, while also competing in exhibitions such as December\u2019s \u201cBattle of the Sexes\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n US Open champion Sabalenka called the WTA season \u2018insane\u2019 (Getty)<\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> has also continued to play in exhibitions despite his criticism of the tennis calendar<\/a>, with the men\u2019s No 1 explaining that he enjoys playing in those events and does not find them physically taxing. The appearance fees undoubtedly help, too, while creating a loophole where stars can be deducted bonuses by skipping mandatory tour events only to recoup it elsewhere, such as October\u2019s lucrative Six Kings Slam <\/a>in Saudi Arabia. Alcaraz and Sinner began their season with an exhibition in South Korea<\/a>, rather than playing warm-up events in Australia. <\/p>\n Alcaraz played the most matches on the ATP Tour last season, with 80; unsurprisingly, perhaps, given how regularly he reached the latter stages of tournaments, while Sabalenka\u2019s 75 matches were the most in the WTA. At the other end of the scale, as explained by the ATP chair Gaudenzi, the lower-ranked players will compete in more tournaments, but with a far lower number of matches. <\/p>\n But players who crash out of a tournament early one week are incentivised to enter another the next as they chase ranking points to maintain or improve their position in the rolling 52-week leaderboard. It has been described by three-time grand slam finalist Casper Ruud as a \u201crat race\u201d. There is a sense that this two-tier split is not benefiting anyone. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Alcaraz and Sinner dominated men\u2019s tennis in 2025 but missed events like the Canada Open in Toronto \u2018after many consecutive weeks of competition without rest\u2019 (Getty)<\/p>\n Over several years, key stakeholders have been working on solutions to the structural issues identified within the sport\u2019s calendar and schedule. <\/p>\n One suggestion has been a \u201cless-is-more\u201d approach and a \u201cpremium\u201d circuit, which guarantees the top stars competing at the top events in between the grand slams and with defined mid-season breaks that allow for players to be fresher for the four most important events of the year. The lower-ranked tournaments would remain, feeding into the top tier. <\/p>\n But as the power in tennis remains so fragmented, any proposed reforms \u2013 from the players, the tours, or the grand slams \u2013 have lacked the collective backing to be taken forward. Tennis remains stuck in having the same discussions about the same topics. <\/p>\n There has been at least one new move ahead of the 2026 season, however. After the state of Shanghai, the ATP has introduced a new heat rule that will enforce a 10-minute cooling break or the suspension of play if players, spectators or ball kids are at risk of heat stress. Change can happen. It just often takes its time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-417152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Iga](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2256158692.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2215699102.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2195837732.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Alcaraz](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2247020482.jpeg\")
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