Novak Djokovic has shared his concern over the brand new 12-day Masters 1000 format. The world No 1 revealed that gamers had “complained” over sure points in Madrid and Rome after the attracts have been prolonged to incorporate 96 gamers. While Djokovic thought it was good news for the lower-ranked stars, he raised fears over the influence of spending two weeks at every match.

The tennis calendar noticed a big change this yr when Madrid, Rome and Shanghai joined Indian Wells and Miami as Masters occasions staged over two weeks. Canada and Cincinnati may also do the identical from 2025 and gamers have already been fast to voice their opinion on the brand new format - with Andy Murray not a fan whereas Aryna Sabalenka loved the additional days between matches.

Although Djokovic missed the Madrid Open, he has already performed his first two matches in Rome and gave his verdict on the brand new schedule - elevating a number of issues. “It depends really from which angle you're looking at it,” the 22-time Grand Slam champion began, earlier than explaining why the format wasn’t for him.

He continued: “I mean, I'm personally overall not a fan of that because I feel like we already have four Grand Slams a year that take two plus one week eventually if you go all the way with training. You spend 10 to 12 weeks only in Grand Slams. Now we're going to have eight out of nine 1000 events be the same for next year: pretty much a two-week event.”

While the Serb may see the fan enchantment, he defined that the prolonged format was most likely worse for restoration long-term regardless of permitting gamers to have a day of relaxation between matches. “If you're a fan, of course an extra day of seeing the top players is great because you have more tennis in your city. I understand from that point of view,” he defined.

“You mentioned that it might be advantage because of the recovery. Yes, it could be the case in that given tournament. But then if you play all the big events on clay, for example, you played Indian Wells and Miami, that is also kind of a month duration for two events, then you play Monte Carlo, Barcelona, then back to back Rome and Madrid, if you play really well and go all the way, you're maybe not the freshest for Roland Garros.”

The world No 1 defined that - on the clay - the French Open was his precedence and he would nonetheless attempt to be prepared regardless of the longer lead-up. “It really depends what you as a player value the most, what are your goals. For me it's Roland Garros on clay, for sure, the most important event. I'm trying to do everything in terms of the schedule to set up so that I can play my best there,” he mentioned.

“It's not a guarantee that I will, but I've had some experience over the years, and I know what I need to do with my team and my preparation in order to peak in Slams. As I mentioned, those are the most important tournaments for me.” Djokovic then mentioned he didn’t need to get into the funds earlier than discussing the technical facet of issues.

And he revealed that some gamers had complained concerning the organisation with the tournaments now taking care of extra stars.  “I think the positive thing is you're giving more players the opportunity to be in the draw, the main draw. Obviously they expanded the draw so you have more players,” he mentioned.

“For organisation, I see it is a big challenge. It's a big hustle to welcome so many additional players with their respective player staff members for transportation and everything. It just puts the organisation to even a bigger task.”

As a former president of the ATP Player Council and now the co-founder of the Professional Tennis Players Association, Djokovic revealed that there had already been some teething issues. “There's been complaints about Madrid and Rome tournaments from players, with their accommodations, transportation,” he mentioned.

“It's challenging. Obviously the first year if you're not expanding your facilities even more, you'll have struggles. When you have two raining days, you'll have problems with the practice courts. All these things maybe the regular tennis fans doesn't know about or care about much. We as players, it's very important for us to have those particular conditions that we're able to practice and to prepare ourselves the best possible way.”