Ex-ATP Schwartzman calls for calendar re-think

The ATP needs to shake up the tournament calendar and re-organise in a logical manner using the Formula 1 or world gold model.

That’s the call from Diego Schwartzman, a former top 10 Argentine who retired in 2024.

The South American currently works with Tennis Australia as a liaison between players and  the corporate suite.

But Schwartzman told online outlet Clay that the currently confusing calendar needs an immediate shakeup to make it more appealing and logical to casual fans.

“Hopefully the Grand Slams, the Masters 1000 events and some of the big tournaments can create a more structured tour, more centred on the elite of world tennis, where people can watch everything on the same channel or the same app,” he said.

With the ATP fighting negative reaction from players, media and tennis public alike over the unwieldy 12-day Masters 1000 experiment, the situation is ripe for a re-do.

“Players have clearly shown their dissatisfaction with the two-week Masters 1000 events,” the Argentine said.

“The calendar has been extended by almost a month because of those extra five days per tournament. Obviously, it represents much higher revenue for the tournaments, and the ATP says that in theory that goes to the players, but it’s a lot of days and I don’t think it was a great decision.

The plans to shoehorn in yet another Masters 1000 to satisfy a bottomless supply of Saudi sponsorship money in February, 2028, the confusion looks likely to continue.

“The calendar needs to be restructured into a shorter one, with fewer tournaments, where priority is given to the Masters 1000 events and the Grand Slams, followed by the 500s and the 250s,” Schwartzman said.

“It makes some sense, so the calendar becomes more organised, because right now it’s a bit of a mess. 

“Even people watching on TV don’t know which tournament they’re watching or how many points each one offers. It needs to be organised somehow, and hopefully that can be achieved in the coming years.”