Jannik Sinner was one of the players who didn't necessarily complain about the recent schedule changes on the ATP Tour, but he now received a response from one of his opponents.
In recent weeks and months, many players on both Tours criticized their leaders for making the schedule too demanding. Players felt that they were forced to play more and more, which could ultimately result in more injuries.
On the WTA Tour, Iga Swiatek has been one of the most prominent critics, and she was now also punished by her stance towards the calendar, as she lost the World No. 1 spot because she didn't attend enough WTA 500 tournaments, for which she received punishment in the form of losing some of her ranking points.
On the ATP Tour, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev have been some of the louder voices as they criticized the schedule. However, reigning World No. 1 had a response for them, saying that they don't have to play all the tournaments.
They say every coin has two sides, and that certainly applies also to this case. Ugo Humbert, currently ranked 16th in the world, is a player who has spent the vast majority of his tennis career around the Top 30 in the rankings.
He knows the struggles that someone like Sinner might not know, as the Italian player succeeded in every tournament that he played this year, meaning he didn't have to play so many.
Talking to Tennis Majors while competing at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) in Frankfurt, where he lost in the final to Ben Shelton, the French player voiced his disagreement with the current schedule.
"There are too many things and they (the ATP) do everything to… They never go in the players' direction. I'm sorry, but I think that, already, the biggest bu*****t is to have put the Masters 1000 over two weeks. It's tiring."
The Frenchman explained that while the ATP tells the players that they can earn more money thanks to longer tournaments, he explained that's not necessarily the case, given the higher expenses that they have because of that as well.
"And they tell us that we earn more money but it's not true, we have twice as many expenses. There are a lot more guys who get injured, too. Even to follow on TV, I think it's not even worth it, you don't understand who's playing when etc. All that, it's just a question of money, but that's not all there is to it..."
Humbert clearly heard also Sinner's comments, as he addressed that as well. The 26-year-old explained that players ranked lower don't have other choice than playing tournaments, because they want to climb up the rankings.
"I hear some people, like Jannik Sinner, saying you can choose not to play. But they’re not thinking clearly... When you’re 50th or 60th in the world, you try to play as many events as you can to climb up the rankings."
"We need to rethink things, try and condense things a bit more, because as things stand at the moment, it’s exhausting. After a while, it’s just not possible."
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