“I think we play too much and the schedule is crazy,” Iga Swiatek’s words thundered through the sport as she joined a growing chorus of stars, Taylor Fritz, Carlos Alcaraz, and others, lamenting tennis’s unforgiving grind. Yet even as some players complain while still lining up for exhibitions ahead of the Australian Open next year, a sharp countervoice has risen. After defeating Alexander Zverev to reach the ATP Finals last four, Félix Auger-Aliassime now planted himself firmly on the opposing side, boldly calling out players who complain about ATP scheduling and exposing the contradictions reverberating across the tour.

When asked about players who claim they no longer enjoy the professional tour, the Canadian offered an unfiltered response. “I don’t know how guys don’t enjoy it, to be honest. I think they lost perspective completely,” he stated, cutting through the noise with blunt conviction. He expanded on that thought with clarity and gratitude, adding, “I get that you can get tired. I’m tired, too. I do trips around and I go see different circumstances around the world. I mean, we’re just lucky and blessed. In my humble opinion, every day I wake up and I enjoy. I enjoy that I’m here. Even if I lose matches, it’s okay, I’m pissed for a day.”

His message hardened in the final line, a statement that rattled against the ongoing debate. “I don’t know. If you want to play less tournaments, stay home. Nobody’s forcing you to be here,” he said, standing firmly apart from the rising player complaints.

But his stance runs headfirst into a wave of dissatisfaction expressed by top ATP names. Carlos Alcaraz, speaking in October, captured the counterargument with precision: “I think that the schedule is really tight. They have to do something with the schedule. I think there are too many mandatory tournaments, too many in a row.” His sentiment reflected a mounting pressure among the tour’s elite.

Taylor Fritz added his own frustration after his ATP Finals run ended with a straight-sets loss to Alex de Minaur. His words carried the bite of exhaustion and discontent: “Right now I’m feeling pretty upset. I prefer one-week Masters 1000 but to create more free weeks in the calendar. If it’s to have even more tournaments, I don’t see the point,” the American argued, directing his irritation at the tour’s structure.

Even ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi acknowledged the labyrinthine difficulty of building a workable calendar. In a recent interview, he explained, “Tennis is a very, very, very difficult sport to schedule, probably the hardest, for a simple reason: it is direct elimination. We try to balance it for all the cohorts of players, including challengers, because the challengers are also very important for the pathway and to build the champions of the future.”

And this is not that Auger-Aliassime has separated himself from the tide of complaints. Former ATP professionals, too, have recently voiced their frustration with what they see as incessant grumbling from today’s stars, echoing the Canadian’s belief that the privilege of the sport sometimes gets lost in the noise.

Mark Petchey dismisses players’ complaints about tour scheduling

During a recent appearance on Tennis Channel, former British ATP pro Mark Petchey, well known for working with Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu, did not hold back. He stated, “What I disagree with massively is that they have a seat at the table in terms of these discussions and they publicly go out and firebomb their own tour, which I think is completely unacceptable I think from a commercial point of view.”

Petchey then sharpened his point, highlighting a contradiction he sees in the complaints. Despite the constant grumbling about the schedule, he noted silence around the introduction of a new Masters 1000 event in Saudi Arabia, set for 2028. “And we haven’t heard anything about putting on a new Masters 1000. No one’s grumbled about that because there’s a huge amount of dollars going into that tournament,” he added.

On a contrasting front, Toni Nadal, uncle and longtime coach of Rafael Nadal, recently pushed back against Carlos Alcaraz’s criticism of the tour structure. He insisted, “It’s not a question of calendar. Now, many will disagree, but the real problem is that the ball always goes too fast.”

He reinforced his stance with a broader reflection on the modern game: “It is not a question of quantity, but of intensity and violence of the gesture.”

As these scheduling debates intensify, the ATP season edges toward its finale, with the ATP Finals wrapping up on Sunday.

And when the new season dawns, the voices, on both sides, are certain to rise even stronger.