![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/58671_1996016_updates.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Alexander Zverev (GER) returns the ball to Tallon Griekspoor (NED) in second round play at IGA Stadium on\u00a0Aug 5, 2026.\u00a0\u2014 Reuters<\/p>\n
World number three Alexander Zverev has called for ATP Masters 1000 tournaments to return to one-week formats, saying shorter events would help leading players manage their fitness and avoid having to skip tournaments.<\/p>\n
Jannik Sinner withdrew from the Canadian Open after retaining his Wimbledon title to prioritise his health, while 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic also missed the US Open warm-up event to manage his workload. <\/p>\n
Carlos Alcaraz was absent because of a wrist injury that has kept him sidelined since April.<\/p>\n
The withdrawals meant the Canadian Open was once again without three of the sport\u2019s biggest names, after the trio also missed last year\u2019s edition.<\/p>\n
Zverev, who suffered an opening-round defeat in Montreal, said the extended format had contributed to the absences.<\/p>\n
“I think that’s what two-week events do,\u201d Zverev said. <\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, especially if there’s a Grand Slam coming after that. If you play everything and you’re a top player, you spend seven weeks here in North America.<\/p>\n
“That is quite a long time and I think that’s why a lot of top players choose not to play Canada for multiple years now. That’s unfortunately the sad reality of it.<\/p>\n
“It’s quite simple. Make us be here for two weeks, not seven. For the Masters, it’s two weeks for both of them. I think that’s an easy fix regarding top players playing,” added the German, speaking ahead of the Cincinnati Open.<\/p>\n
Since 2025, seven of the nine Masters 1000 tournaments have been staged over 12 days, with only Monte-Carlo and Paris retaining one-week formats.<\/p>\n
Players have criticised the longer events, although the ATP maintains that competitors control their own schedules and says it is working on incentives to encourage an appropriate number of matches during the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Zverev (GER) returns the ball to Tallon Griekspoor (NED) in second round play at IGA Stadium on\u00a0Aug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[243,2272,10198,3601],"class_list":["post-50554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alexander-zverev","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-atp-masters-1000","tag-canadian-open","tag-sinner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}