Top tennis players say they're playing too much because the tournaments are too long

Tennis players and organizers clash over extended tournament schedules, balancing competition with player well-being and financial interests.

More competition days, more tickets sold, more TV time, more money.

For tennis organizers, the long-sought upgrade of tournaments in Madrid and Rome — expanding them from eight days to nearly two weeks — has been a bonanza.

For the players? Well, they haven’t been nearly as enthusiastic.

With Madrid and Rome following already established two-week events in Indian Wells and Miami, several of the highest-ranked players — the ones who consistently reach the final stages of these tournaments — are growing weary of spending so much more time on the road.

“You got to be some type of superhero to be consistent back-to-back 10 days in each event getting to the very end of it,” recent Monte Carlo champion Stefanos Tsitsipas said in Rome.

What bothers the top players is that these Masters-level tournaments are being modeled after Grand Slams but they’re still not as prestigious as the Grand Slams: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

In essence, the tournaments in Madrid and Rome are merely warmups for Roland Garros.