The upcoming Masters 1000 tournaments have had their fields decimated, with numerous high-profile players withdrawing.
Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic and Jack Draper have withdrawn from the Toronto Open, with Draper also pulling out of the Cincinnati Open in August.
According to Marca, Carlos Alcaraz has also withdrawn from Toronto.
These withdrawals have raised questions regarding the ATP Tour’s schedule, which has been criticised by the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Alex de Minaur and Alexander Zverev.
The exodus of seeds from the upcoming tournaments has prompted one journalist to claim the schedule ‘doesn’t work.’
Matt Roberts says the ATP Tour schedule ‘doesn’t work’
Speaking on The Tennis Podcast, journalists Catherine Whitaker and Matt Roberts were discussing the recent withdrawals from cornerstone ATP Tour events, particularly the Toronto Open.
Whitaker said: “It’s a decimated field and it’s now a 10-day event, and it just feels… and I don’t think that’s accidental by the way that Canada and Cincinnati have become 10-day events.
“I do think that is more likely to lead to these kind of pull-outs, but it’s a tough scene, isn’t it?
“I find myself more pumped for Washington this week for all the reasons you described earlier than for Canada – the bigger event in a week’s time.”
Matt Roberts added: “Honestly, my reaction to these withdrawals was well, of course. If you’re going deeper in Roland Garros and you’re going deeper in Wimbledon as these players have, you need some rest somewhere and there used to be.
“There used to be four weeks really between the end of Wimbledon and the start of Canada. Since Wimbledon got moved back a week it’s been pretty [much] like a three-week gap.
“But now it’s two weeks, 14 days from the end of Wimbledon to the start of Canada and it’s just too much, something’s got to give and honestly the sport should be looking at the schedule and seeing that Cincinnati starts the day that Canada ends.
“The finals respectively are on a Thursday and a Monday and they should be looking at that and thinking, ‘well, this doesn’t work, it does not fit in the amount of time that we have to make these events as long as we’ve made them, we have to change it.’
“I think Canada is the one that certainly on the men’s side, we’ve seen some more sort of surprising winners and finalists over the last few years anyway, haven’t we?
“There have been weaker fields there generally and it seems to just be going more and more in that direction. Yeah, brutal.”
The last five Canadian Open men’s winners
Roberts’ comments regarding some surprise winners at the Canadian Open hold some weight. After all, Alexei Popyrin won the 2024 tournament, beating then-world number eight Andrey Rublev in the final. By doing so, Popyrin became the first Australian player to win a Masters 1000 title since Lleyton Hewitt at Indian Wells in 2003.
In 2023, Jannik Sinner gave tennis fans a taste of what was to follow, beating Alex de Minaur to win his first Masters 1000 event.
| ATP Canadian Open Year | Winner |
| 2024 | Alexei Popyrin |
| 2023 | Jannik Sinner |
| 2022 | Pablo Carreno Busta |
| 2021 | Daniil Medvedev |
| 2019 | Rafael Nadal |
The 2022 tournament sprung another surprise, with Pablo Carreno Busta defeating Hubert Hurkacz to win his first Masters 1000 title.
Daniil Medvedev won the 2021 title after defeating Reilly Opelka in the final. The 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2019 Rafael Nadal won the title – 14 years after his first hard court crown at the 2005 Montreal Open.
