Remember when 5-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz warned of tennis’s relentless pace last year, saying, “Probably they are going to kill us in some way”? Those words hit harder in 2025, a season jam-packed from the December 27 United Cup kickoff in Australia to a late November finish. With 9 Masters, 4 Slams, and from 2026, 16 ATP 500s and 29 ATP 250s on the calendar, the toll is undeniable. Now, after crashing out of Roland Garros, Aussie star Alex de Minaur echoes that exhaustion, joining Casper Ruud in slamming the ATP’s punishing schedule. What did the Aussie have to say this time around?

Just a couple of days ago, 2-time French Open finalist Casper Ruud suffered a surprising defeat to unseeded Nuno Borges. Despite his Madrid Open triumph over Miami champion Jannik Sinner, Ruud struggled with knee pain throughout the match. However, when asked about the impact of the demanding tennis calendar, the 26-year-old Norwegian was candid. “Well, it’s like a rat race when it comes to the rankings,” Ruud said. “You feel you’re obligated to play with certain rules that the ATP have set up with the mandatory events. You feel like you lose a lot if you don’t show up and play. … The punishments are quite hard, in terms of everyone else will play, gain points, and you won’t.”

He additionally reported a 25% reduction in year-end bonuses for players who miss mandatory events. “You’re forcing players to show up injured or sick or whatever, when that’s not what I think is very fair,” Ruud added. And just a day later, fellow ATP star Alex de Minaur echoed similar sentiments following his exhausting 5-set loss to Alexander Bublik, highlighting how widespread and pressing the issue has become among top-tier players on tour.

Speaking at the post-match press conference after his French Open second-round collapse, Australian ace Alex de Minaur offered a blunt but clear solution to the ever-growing demands of the ATP schedule. “No one’s got a solution. But the solution is simple: You shorten the schedule, right?” he stated.

He went on to reflect on the limited recovery time players are given, revealing the exhausting pattern he’s faced year after year in recent times. “What’s not normal is that for the last three, four years I’ve had two days off after the Davis Cup and I’ve gone straight into preseason, straight into the new season again. Once you start, you don’t finish until Nov. 24. So it’s never ending,” he said.

De Minaur further expressed concern over the mental toll of the relentless tour among the players, making it clear the structure is not sustainable. “The way it’s structured … I had to deal with that. I’m still dealing with that right now. The solution is you shorten [the tour], because what’s going to happen is players’ careers are going to get shorter and shorter because they’re just going to burn out mentally. There’s just too much tennis,” he added.

This concern is not limited to the men’s circuit, though. In 2023, Iga Swiatek faced a similar struggle, winning the WTA Finals in Cancun with less than 24 hours to travel to Europe for the Billie Jean King Cup: an impossible demand. Even after voicing her concerns, no changes were made.

Following her loss in Dubai earlier this year, the Polish international reiterated the challenge of the packed calendar: “I’m not surprised. It’s definitely a matter of the calendar. We won’t be able to play at a high level for so many years, week after week,” she said. 

Although De Minaur confessed to mental exhaustion, he also highlighted the significant detriment the current tour has inflicted upon his career, only five months into the season.

Alex de Minaur talks about how he has been mentally tired during the 2025 ATP tour

The 2nd-round clash against Alexander Bublik at Roland Garros marked the Aussie’s 38th match of the season, an intense workload just 5 months into the year. Despite boasting 9 career singles titles and holding a steady presence in the ATP’s elite ranks, GS success continues to elude the Aussie. At 26, he has yet to break past the QF at any of the four Majors, a benchmark he remains eager to surpass.

Alex De Minaur entered the clay-court swing with a solid buildup, making his early exit from Parisian clay all the more disappointing. His loss to Bublik came as a major upset, especially after a promising season as he reached the QF of his home GS in January. And following the match, the Australian opened up about a deeper issue affecting his game, mental fatigue.

“No illness, no injury. Look, I’m just tired. I’m tired mentally. I’m a little bit burnt out, if anything,” de Minaur admitted in his post-match press conference in France. “In a way, the good thing is that today is something like a miracle, in the sense that I’m not known for these types of performances. I’m probably known for the opposite, which is just being consistent and not losing really matches that I shouldn’t be losing.”

With frustrations mounting across the tour, more and more ATP and WTA players have voiced concern about the unrelenting tennis calendar. What’s your take on the situation? Join the conversation below.