Carlos Alcaraz is currently competing in his 14th tournament of the year at the highly anticipated Laver Cup. Alcaraz had a remarkable year, winning French Open and the Wimbledon two of the sport’s most coveted titles. Additionally, he left his imprint with a silver medal at the Paris Olympics. Amid his on-court successes, one of the biggest ongoing rows weighs heavily on the world number three: the congested tennis schedule. Echoing Zverev’s thoughts, Alcaraz came up with his own reasoning.

Before arriving in Berlin, Alcaraz has already participated in 50 singles matches this year, finishing with a stellar 41-9 win-loss record. Despite his outstanding play, the four-time Grand Slam champion said(at his post-match conference) that he occasionally finds it difficult to maintain motivation due to the demanding tennis schedule. He added, “The calendar’s so tight. A lot of tournaments … not as (many) days off as I want.”

As Alcaraz is now focused on performing to the best of his ability for Team Europe, he voiced fear that the already rigorous tennis schedule would get worse if more events became necessary. “Probably during the next few years, it’s going to be even more mandatory tournaments. Probably they’re gonna kill us in some way(chuckles),” he stated.

Further, he added, “Right now there are…a lot of injured (players) because of the calendar…a lot of things…Probably at some point a lot of good players are going to miss a lot of tournaments because of that.  They have to take care of their bodies, their life, they have family, they a lot of stuff in life than tennis. So they have to take care about it as well. So, it’s getting too much i guess.”

Presenting his own views towards such a tight schedule, he stated, “I’ve been feeling this a few times already, that I don’t want to go to that tournament. I want to stay at home with my family and my friends.” Just a few weeks ago, Alexander Zverev also addressed the same concern.

Alexander Zverev shares a similar sentiment to Carlos Alcaraz 

Alexander Zverev became visibly frustrated during his post-match press conference(after losing to Taylor Frtiz) at the Laver Cup on Saturday night, lashing out at a reporter. “It’s the longest season in sports. It’s unnecessarily long. We have an unnecessary amount of tournaments.” 

Emphasizing that there is no real rest or off-season for rising players and they couldn’t afford to take breaks like Novak Djokovic, the German said, “So I do feel like we need to do something about it…so I do think the ATP is working towards that. It’s not an easy solution, but it’s definitely a solution that needs to be made.”

When asked about potential solutions to the current issues in the tennis calendar, Zverev became defensive and cut off the reporter, suggesting that top players may be discussing changes behind the scenes. “The ATP doesn’t care about our opinion — it’s a money business,” he added.

Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz both have demanding schedules that extend until late November, when they compete in the Davis Cup Finals in Spain. Moreover, the United Cup in Australia on December 27 marks the practically immediate start of the 2025 season, leaving the players with little time for rest and recuperation. No wonder this demanding schedule highlights their mutual worries for the well-being of the players.