Carlos Alcaraz has made a few comments about the packed tennis calendar and how it negatively impacts him, but he had to defend his words ahead of the 2024 China Open.
Alcaraz has been a prominent critic of the tennis calendar this year, pointing out how challenging it is in recent weeks. It's not something he talked about frequently before, but recently, he’s been open about it.
While none of his statements are wrong or factually incorrect, some people responded by pointing out that he signed up for at least two exhibitions that he didn't need to.
He played at the Laver Cup recently, which is not a mandatory event, and he signed up for the Saudi-based exhibition later this year, which is also not mandatory.
He was asked about his comments ahead of the 2024 China Open in Beijing, where he'll compete next. Alcaraz gave a very long response on the topic of calendars, his comments, and other people's comments, including some players' comments.
"Well, my energy level right now, it is good. I mean, I have motivations to come here to play a good tennis. I'm going to try to win the tournament, as I try to do to every tournament that I go."
"Yeah, I mean, I've seen and I've hear a lot of players complain about the schedule, about the calendar as well. Didn't see after my words, after this I didn't hear, I didn't seen people or players talk about that. I've seen it before, before my words."
One of the players who were recently asked about the calendar was Jannik Sinner. While he acknowledged that it was long, Sinner didn't complain too much about it.
Alcaraz mentioned Sinner and his comments, acknowledging that some players might not feel the way he does, but overall, there are many on his side. Alexander Zverev famously sided with Alcaraz recently, backing his comments on the schedule, and he surely isn't the only one who agrees with that.
"I hear about in Jannik's press conference here, he talk about it a little bit. He didn't complain as much as he did, he didn't complain big about the calendar. It depends as well about the players. I mean, I'm talking about that."
"Probably a few players, a lot of players are not going in my side; a lot of them going to be in my side complaining about the calendar, that it is so tight. It depend about the feelings of every players."
Alcaraz then turned his attention to the comments about his participation in many exhibition tournaments, which has been criticized by some of the fans, considering that he complained about the schedule.
"I've seen a lot of people talk about my exhibitions this year and complain about the schedule, at the same time putting a lot of exhibition. But I want to say there is different things; we all have to separate the exhibitions and the calendar."
"Yeah, as I said, it's about different feelings in every person. So I'm talking about myself, that the schedule it's been so tight since the first week of January till the last week of November. We have to take about it ourselves and we have to do something about it..."