Vasek Pospisil joined a slew of players and pundits in vehemently condemning the ATP for "never caring" about tennis players in the wake of the Paris Masters schedule on Thursday.
The men's governing body, the ATP, has come under massive criticism from players and fans who believe they do not hold player's interests at heart and there are growing concerns over players' welfare related to late-night finishes to matches.
The Paris Masters is the tournament under the microscope this week and tennis fans just can't quite work out the unfolding scenarios of an indoor setting having a late-night match finishing past midnight. That has been the case for multiple days.
To compound the issue, the same players are expected to play an early match on the following day's schedule. Jannik Sinner was one of those players who was heavily impacted by a late-night finish to his second-round match that finished in the early hours of Thursday (2:37 a.m.) and was required on the court 14 hours later.
The Italian was scheduled during the day's session which was quite a surprise, more so when Novak Djokovic had finished his match earlier the previous day but was scheduled for the night match on Thursday. Norway's Casper Ruud chimed in and called it a "joke" while PTPA co-founder Vasek Pospisil was not pulling any punches when he related to his own experience.
"The ATP Tour has never cared about the players. In 2018 I finished a 3h battle at 12:45 am and was scheduled to play at 1 pm the next day. Not joking. All they could say was “This is within the rules”. The next day I herniated my disc after 4 games, had surgery, and was out for 9 months."
Sinner did not take any chances, especially with the ATP Finals on the horizon. He pulled out from his third-round match against Alex de Minaur, citing fatigue, after unanimously agreeing with his team. His coach Darren Cahill made his feelings clear on social media.
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