Jannik Sinner was forced to withdraw from the 2023 Paris Masters after he had to play until 3 AM the previous day.
The 22-year-old Italian had a very unpleasant experience at the last ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season. He came to Paris shortly after winning the 2023 Vienna Open, and already, his first match was a real challenge.
Sinner had to play the last match on Wednesday, and after the previous matches significantly extended the schedule, something that happened a few times at the event already, he stepped onto the court already after the midnight.
Since his match against Mackenzie McDonald went into three sets, it ended almost at 3 AM, way past 2:30 AM, at around 2:45 AM local time. The Italian visibly wasn't happy by what happened, and so wasn't his coach, Darren Cahill, who posted on Instagram:
"2:45 AM. Happy for Jannik Sinner's win, but zero care for the player's welfare with the Paris schedule."
Although the organizers didn't help the Italian by making him play after the midnight, they made even weirder choice the next day, scheduling Sinner to play against Australia's Alex de Minaur at 5 PM, only about 14 hours after the conclusion of his second-round match.
That's something unacceptable, and many fellow pros got behind Sinner, as both Casper Ruud and Stan Wawrinka commented on social media:
"Bravo ATP Tour, way to help one of the best players in the world recover and be as ready as possible when he finished his previous match at 2:37 am this morning 14,5 hours to recover.. what a joke."
"It’s crazy tournament doesn’t care and ATP just follow what the tournament will want! Always the same story..."
Soon after their comments, Sinner made a difficult decision, as per Marca, and withdrew from the tournament. Obviously, it was impossible for the Italian to play, and it's sad that he was technically forced into the decision by the tournament organizers.
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