Alexander Zverev wants ATP Tour rule change as he calls out tennis chiefs

Alexander Zverev is the latest tennis star to hit out at the Masters 1000 format, revealing that he is yet to meet a player who is onboard with the new system. The ATP recently made major calendar changes, making seven of their nine Masters events move to a 10 or 12-day run time.

Previously, only Indian Wells and the Miami Open were held over the extended format, but now only the Monte Carlo Masters and Paris Masters are one week in length and it is a change which has angered players.

Zverev insists the top ATP players are required to play in the Masters events which leaves less room for rest and practice. Speaking on the Nothing Major podcast, he questioned whether the ATP's business plan is 'working very well' despite the changes and claimed he isn't sure whether fans truly enjoy the new package.

Asked whether he would consider playing a schedule of 15 to 18 tournaments to stay fresher for Grand Slams, he continued: "The thing is I would love to. But with how the ATP has done the tournament nowadays, it's impossible to. How are you going to do that? You have the 9 Masters 1000 events, which are mandatory. Most of them are two week long events nowadays, except Monte Carlo and Paris Bercy, which I think are the best two weeks nowadays because you've kind of in and out.

"I think for a fan and for every tennis player, like, Paris Bercy was awesome last year. I won it, which was even more awesome for me (laughs). You kind of get there, you play your five matches, and you get out of there.

"You don't have to stick around. You don't have to practice in between matches. You don't have to do all those things. That's how Masters events used to be. I think all the players loved it."

Zverev then went on to criticise how the ATP have introduced more mandatory events before questioning whether there was any consideration for how players must prepare for the biggest events in the calendar.

He concluded: "Now the ATP has made four mandatory 500 events for you to play, which used to be three, now it's four. You don't really get under 20 events except if you are pulling out of those big events. I'm not a fan of where this is going because if you take Alex de Minaur for example last year, he played his last match at Davis Cup November 25th, and played the first match at United Cup this year December 27th. So you have a month of off season. How are you going to take two weeks off? How are you going to prepare your body for a new season? How are you going to train enough for tennis?"