ATP<\/a> Masters 1000 competitions have been extended to 12-day events in recent years. <\/p>\n\u201cFrom the very beginning, I was against it. Even when I was president of the council, I didn\u2019t support it. I think for the players, it\u2019s not good.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom one perspective, you could say that for me, at my age now, having more days between tournaments is good.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut overall, for most players, it just takes away days from the calendar. Personally, I\u2019m not supportive of that.<\/p>\n
![\"Novak](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2238739516-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Hu Chengwei\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand there\u2019s an upside for the tournaments and the business side, but as a player, I never liked it. I sympathise with players who are against it, because now they\u2019re realising it\u2019s not great.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the same time, look, it\u2019s an individual sport, and there are choices to be made. In the end, you can still make choices. Some players say there are rules imposed, but those rules are for bonuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can choose to skip them, but then you miss out on the bonus. That\u2019s the decision you make if you want to play less. And some players also sign up for exhibitions, so it\u2019s a little contradictory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been talking about this topic for many years. This isn\u2019t the first time. People who know my press conferences or my time on the council know that more than 15 years ago, I was talking about the need to come together and reorganise the schedule and the calendar, even before the 30-year deal plan came about with the Masters events.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a long and complex topic. I don\u2019t really know where to start or finish, to be honest. There are so many elements to consider.<\/p>\n
![\"Novak](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2233231155-1024x610.jpg\")
Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThe monopoly that has existed in this sport has been very strong for the last three or four decades, and there are people who simply don\u2019t want to change things for the better when it comes to players\u2019 welfare.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone tends to act in their own interest. That\u2019s logical, from a business point of view. But as someone who has played at the highest level for more than 20 years, I can say that players are not united enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not participating enough when they should be. They make comments, they complain, and then they go away. Later, when something\u2019s wrong again, they come back.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to invest time and energy yourself, not your agent, not your team, not your parents, to understand how the system works and how things can be improved for players.<\/p>\n
![\"Novak](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2233545912-1024x657.jpg\")
Photo by Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cFor that to happen, especially the top players need to sit down, roll up their sleeves, and care more about getting involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause just going to the media and talking about it might attract some attention, but at the end of the day, it doesn\u2019t change anything. I know this from personal experience, trust me. It\u2019s a very complex topic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Novak Djokovic\u2019s first-round opponent at the Shanghai Masters<\/p>\n
In the first round at the Shanghai Masters, Djokovic will come up against Marin Cilic<\/a>, with whom he has an incredibly one-sided head-to-head record. <\/p>\nHe has beaten Cilic 19 times at tour-level events and has lost just twice, with the first defeat coming at the Paris Masters in 2016. <\/p>\n
After his triumph in the French capital, the Croatian won against Djokovic in their next clash, which came in the 2018 Queen\u2019s Club Championships final. <\/p>\n
Their most recent meeting was in the 2022 Tel Aviv final, which went the way of the 24-time major champion in straight sets. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic is set to return to action on the ATP Tour as he gets his 11th Shanghai…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[6733,49,48,2083,39713,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-186156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-novak-djokovic","12":"tag-shanghai-masters","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Novak](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2233591572-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Sarah Stier\/Getty ImagesNovak Djokovic gives his verdict on criticism of the ATP schedule <\/p>\n