Stefanos Tsitsipas is an alternate at the 2024 ATP Finals, and he discussed the mental toll the lengthy tennis calendar took on him this year.
Tsitsipas had qualified for the previous five editions of the ATP Finals. In his first appearance at the season-ending tournament, he won the title by defeating the retired Dominic Thiem in a thrilling final.
The Greek No. 1 did not advance beyond the group stage in his subsequent appearances, but consistently qualifying for the ATP Finals was an impressive achievement that showed his high level throughout those seasons.
Tsitsipas' results were not good enough to qualify for the ongoing event in Turin. Despite some impressive moments, including winning a third title at the Monte-Carlo Masters, he missed out.
However, Tsitsipas is still at the ATP Finals as one of the two alternates, the other being Grigor Dimitrov. That is not what the former world No. 3 wanted, but he will at least receive $155,000 for being an alternate.
The two-time Grand Slam runner-up took the time to do an interview at the season-ending tournament, during which he mentioned the increased number of two-week Masters events this year. He also wrote about that on social media a few days ago.
In a post on X(formerly Twitter), Tsitsipas argued that two-week Masters 1000 tournaments reduce the quality of tennis played and stated that the ATP was trying to fix something that was not broken in the first place.
However, Stan Wawrinka exposed his hypocrisy by sharing a video of Tsitsipas from 2022 in which he spoke positively about plans to introduce more two-week Masters 1000 events during a conversation with the ATP president, Andrea Gaudenzi.
Tsitsipas reiterated that his view had changed in an interview with Sky Sports. The Greek said spending more time at Masters 1000 tournaments made the year exhausting, took a mental toll on him, and contributed to his failure to qualify for the ATP Finals.
"It's been exhausting. This year has been the most exhausting year I've had on the tour. It did take a mental toll being at tournaments longer than I particularly expected to be. The Masters 1000 new concept hasn't been great and I haven't really been a huge fan of it."
"I'm willing to express it, I don't mind it's my opinion. I try and make it better for the rest of us, to have a solid schedule and days that make sense in terms of competition. My position is to help tennis and give my own opinions as a tennis player that is facing those challenges."
The 26-year-old also described his disappointment in not qualifying for the ATP Finals, the first time Tsitsipas had failed to do so since 2018.
"A few years ago I was champion of the ATP Finals and now I'm here as an alternate. So, things have changed a little bit from where I saw myself at the start of the season. I had a decent run at the clay-court season in Europe, accumulating some good points, but I just missed my spot in Turin this year."