Most players only get a two to three week vacation before they begin their preseason training.

As the 2025 ATP season begins, it feels necessary to bring up the length of schedule. 

The ATP tour schedule runs from the last day in December until about the end of November (that is if you were a top 8 player or your country qualified for the Davis Cup finals).

The problem for me comes in two parts, the number of events, and the scheduling. The tournaments are spread out through the year in such a way that barring any exhibitions and promotional events, the players in ATP get only 4-5 weeks off.

This has to be the shortest off-season in sports.

Before we get into the commentary, I think it’s important to address what’s mandatory as an ATP player. 

There are four different types of tournaments on the ATP tour: 

1. Grand Slams
2. Masters 1000s
3. ATP 500s
4. ATP 250s

The bigger the tournament, the more rankings points available, the more prize money to be taken home. That’s the simple way to put it, but most people aren’t familiar with the tournaments outside the slams. As an American, my primary blame is towards ESPN. They do a great job covering the slams, as they feature main matches on ESPN/ESPN2 and outside matches on ESPN+, but outside of that, their tennis coverage is nowhere to be found. People don’t know what’s going on and that’s because it takes far more effort to follow the ATP Tennis Tour compared to other sports that are thrown in your face on a daily basis. I think I’ll leave it at that and save those thoughts for another day! 

First up are the four most important events of the season, the Grand Slams. These four events draw the most viewers and take up the most calendar time. It spans over two weeks, but if you count the qualifying matches, it’s almost three weeks. Players outside the main draw compete in qualifying matches, and have to win 3 consecutive matches to earn a spot in the main draw. Since the top 104 ranked players go straight to the main draw, the next 119 best players who sign up get a spot in the qualifying. The remaining 9 spots are given to wild cards. The spread of the four majors is interesting, as the first major, Australian Open, occurs at the beginning of the season (middle of January) and the three others don’t occur until late the Spring and Summer. 

Australian Open (Jan 12-Jan 26)

Roland-Garros, French Open (May 25-June 8)

Wimbledon (June 30-July 13)

US Open (Aug 25-Sep 7)

The second most important type of tournament on tour is the ATP Masters 1000. There are 9 Masters 1000s tournaments across the season. The top-ranked players are required to participate in 8 out of the 9 ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (Monte Carlo is optional). However, exemptions apply based on age, career achievements, and the number of matches played. Essentially, there is a Djokovic treatment! These tournaments have been two week tournaments in the past, but have been shortened to a week or 10 days from 2024 and on. 

The third most important type of tournament on tour is the ATP 500 events. The top tennis players are required to enter at least four ATP 500 tournaments, including one after the US Open. If they don’t, they’ll receive a “zero” score for each tournament they don’t play in towards their world ranking.

The fourth type of ATP Tour event is an ATP 250 Event. These events are not mandatory, but top players often compete in a few to maintain or improve their rankings. There typically is only one top 10 player in a 250 event but sometimes two, showing that these events are tailored towards players ranked #20-#100. 

The final tournament before the end of the season is the ATP Finals. This is made for the top 8 players in the rankings at the end of the year. Qualifying for and playing in the ATP Finals is a prestigious goal. It’s also huge for the players wallets!! A purse of $15.2 million was distributed among an exclusive group of eight participants in 2024.

Season Outlook: 

1. Hard Court Season (January to March) 

The season begins with a focus on hard courts, as most warm-up tournaments and the Australian Open are played on this surface. 

Key Events: 

January: ATP events like the Adelaide International, Auckland, and the Australian Open. 

February: Indoor hard-court tournaments, e.g., Rotterdam, Doha, and Marseille. 

March: The Sunshine Double with two ATP Masters 1000 events — Indian Wells and Miami Open.

2. Clay Court Season (April to June) 

The tour transitions to clay in April with European events, culminating in the French Open in early June. 

Key Events: 

April: Monte-Carlo Masters (Masters 1000), Barcelona Open. 

May: Madrid Open and Rome Masters (Masters 1000 events). 

June: Roland Garros (French Open).

3. Grass Court Season (June to Early July) 

The grass-court season is short, spanning about 5-6 weeks, immediately after Roland Garros. 

Key Events: 

June: ATP 500 events like Queen’s Club (London) and Halle Open (Germany). 

Early July: Wimbledon, the pinnacle of the grass-court season.

4. Hard Court Season Resumes (Mid-July to Early November) 

After Wimbledon, the ATP Tour shifts back to hard courts, preparing players for the North American swing and the US Open. 

Key Events: 

July: Post-Wimbledon hard-court tournaments like Atlanta and Washington. 

August: The US Open Series, which includes the ATP Masters 1000 events in Canada (National Bank Open) and Cincinnati (Western & Southern Open). 

Late August to Early September: US Open. 

October-November: Asian Swing (Shanghai Masters) and European indoor hard-court tournaments (Paris Masters).

5. ATP Finals, Davis Cup and then Off-Season (November to December) 

The season ends with the ATP Finals on indoor hard courts in November. That is followed by the Davis Cup finals (World Cup of Tennis) which is played on Indoor Hard.

The transitions from hard courts to clay, then to grass, and back to hard courts are designed to ensure variety in the ATP Tour schedule while testing players’ adaptability to different playing conditions. Surface-specific tournaments, such as the French Open on clay and Wimbledon on grass, maintain a balance in the calendar and preserve the rich traditions of the sport. Hard courts dominate the schedule due to their widespread availability and durability, making them a practical choice for the majority of tournaments. This carefully structured flow makes the ATP Tour both physically and mentally demanding, requiring players to adjust their game to suit each surface throughout the year. This adaptability is a hallmark of success on the ATP Tour.

So you might ask, how do players decide on what events to play? Based on the logistics and rules they are confined to play in certain tournaments, but locations and player fields are typically based on player preference or of course, monetary circumstances. When it comes to 250s or 500s, the top players will usually get extra appearance fees to play those events. They negotiate those directly with the tournament, and it’s not public. The tournaments can also help themselves by offering better prize money than other events. What’s most interesting about these deals is the fact that the ATP doesn’t have anything to do with it. It’s all between the players and tournaments themselves. Lower ranked players may pick based on what events they can get into directly or may try to avoid events with more top players. 

The next point I want to address is the physical impact that winning can have on a player. If you are a top 10 player, there are essentially no days off. That primarily stems from the reality that you need to outwork your competition to stay in the top 10, but additionally, it revolves around tournament success. 

The simple way to put it: If you keep winning, you keep playing. 

If you are playing a 500 event, and go on to win the tournament, that means you played Wednesday-Sunday with no rest. Finals are always played on Sunday unless it’s a week before a Grand Slam. So, if you just won on Sunday, you celebrate, fly to the next tournament, and get back to work for a potential match on Tuesday or Wednesday. If you have continued success, that can add up to 7 or 8 matches in a matter of two weeks. That is extremely taxing on the body. As you go down the ranks, the transition for matches can be under 36 hours as you may lose a Saturday Semi-final and play an opening round match on Monday. That’s just how it goes. You may ask, well can players drop out of events if they are too tired? Yes, of course they can, but that’s only those who can afford to concede a drop in points. Players outside the top 75 don’t have that luxury. They have to grind it out in order to stay inside the top 100. 

So my overall problem is that this schedule punishes those that make it deep into tournaments, and logic denotes that the top 30 are repeatedly enjoying success in every tournament they play.

The other question that is important to address, is how do the rankings work? How do you gain or drop points? 

ATP ranking points expire 52 weeks after they are earned, which means players lose points from the corresponding tournament in the previous year unless they defend them by achieving a similar result. So, if a player wins a title in 2024, they have to return to the same tournament in 2025 and win the title again to defend their points. Depending on how short they come from the title (what Round of the tournament they lose in) will determine how many points they drop. The same goes for any sort of run a player makes at a tournament.

The ATP rankings operate on a “best of” system, where a player’s ranking is determined by their best 19 tournament results over the last 52 weeks. If a player performs poorly in key tournaments, strong performances in other events can replace the lower scores, allowing them to maintain or improve their ranking. This system emphasizes consistent performance while providing flexibility for players to recover from setbacks.

Player Quotes:

To cap this article off, I wanted to include some player quotes about the ATP schedule and the length of the season.

Sometimes, Carlos Alcaraz feels a lack of motivation to compete as he feels burned out. 

“Sometimes I don’t feel motivated at all,” he said.

“The calendar is so tight—a lot of tournaments, no days off, or not as many days off as I want.”

“It’s kind of like you finish one week or you finish a swing, you only have two or three days off and then you have to go to other tournaments to other parts of the world. Since the beginning of the year you’re accumulating hours, days.”

Alcaraz also recently claimed that the calendar will “kill us (the players) in some way.”

2021 Olympic Gold Medalist Alexander Zverev said the ATP season is “the longest in the sport” and that there is “an unnecessary number of tournaments.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas says “It’s not just about avoiding injuries; it’s about keeping players in the game longer. Less wear and tear means more years of top-level tennis, stronger rivalries, and better matches.” 

Outside of clay courts, the speed of all courts are increasing. That helps allow players to keep points shorter, but that can also take away the beauty of the sport. For me, I love clay tennis the best because it makes players think more. You aren’t going to punish as many winners because the court is slower, so it makes the rallies more like a puzzle. Players are forced to use more strategy to gain an edge on their opponents. 

Hard courts by nature are very punishing to the body as moving and sliding on the surface can lead to significant damage to joints and ligaments. But in today’s case, it seems like each year, hard court speeds are increasing. That might go a long way in enabling a tennis player to have a longer career. The consensus among players is that the season should be shortened to allow for longer off-seasons, giving them more time to rest and recover.

Thanks for reading! Until next time…

-Simon