Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz – the top two players of the ATP rankings decided to ignore Canadian Open, the tournament also witnessed the absence of Novak Djokovic and Jack Draper.
The world's leading players Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have decided to ignore Canadian Open and will prepare for the US Open by playing in Cincinnati. And President Canadian Open, Karl Hale admitted he was “disappointed” when the top tennis stars did not participate in Toronto.
This year's Canadian Open tennis tournament has been expanded, with 96 players attending instead of 56 as in previous seasons. The tournament starts last Monday, will take place for 12 days instead of 10 days, with the men's finals scheduled to take place on Friday. Sinner and Alcaraz said their absence was due to fatigue. Meanwhile, the Grand Slam champion 24 times, Djokovic has not attended the tournament since 2019.
“It is obvious that we are disappointed with this withdrawal,” Hale explained in an interview with Mundo Deportivo.
“But we talked to the players, we talked to the tour, exchanged with Andrea Gaudenzi – CEO of ATP. He will come this week and we will discuss how to improve the situation.
“This is a 12 -day new model, so we will continue to complete the process. But so far, we are satisfied with this model and will continue to develop in the future,” the head of Canadian Open added.
At this time the tournament is taking place in Toronto. The former US Open champion, Daniil Medvedev and the player twice to the Grand Slam final, Stefanos Tsitsipas was eliminated from the tournament, while the No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev and the No. 2 Seed Taylor Fritz were the two brightest candidates to raise the trophy before the quarterfinals.
Referring to the reason why top players refused to attend the tournament due to fatigue, Mr. Hale said: “It is only a personal opinion. I don't necessarily have to agree with that. As you see, the tournament is of good quality, there are some of the best matches I have witnessed and the top seeds still have the opportunity to compete.
We will talk to the players about their concerns and with the tour about how we can improve the schedule and do the best possible. That is our goal in the future “.