Dan Evans, the veteran British No. 1, has given his views on the tennis playing schedule after top players like Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek have highlighted the over-exhaustion. Several of Evans’ fellow pros have publicly criticized the ATP tour schedule and suggested that they were obliged to play far too much tennis. Evans disagreed and warned his colleagues that their complaints were unfounded.
Evans has been on the circuit since 2006 and has two ATP titles to his name – the Murray River Open in 2021 and the ATP 500 2023 Washington Open. He’s also played in the fourth round of two Majors, the Australian and US Opens. In August 2023, he reached a career-high No. 21 in the world.
The British ace responded after both Alcaraz and Swiatek had gone public with their concerns. At the end of 2024, Alcaraz felt that there were too many tournaments, as reported by Express.co.uk:
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"I’m the kind of player who think there is a lot of tournaments during the year, mandatory tournament, and probably during the next few years gonna be even more tournaments, more mandatory tournaments."
Swiatek also complained about the schedule after losing earlier this year in Dubai. She told the post-match press conference after crashing out 3-6, 3-6 to Mirra Andreeva:
"I'm not surprised. It's definitely a matter of the calendar. We won't be able to play at a high level for so many years, week after week."
Evans was interviewed by the BBC ahead of his week's HSBC Championship at Queen's Club, and he disagreed with Alcaraz and Swiatek. He insisted that players should be grateful for their busy schedules:
"There are other people in the world struggling for work, and I think we have to be careful harping on about the tough schedule. We're allowed to take weeks off, we are independent contractors, we can take the week off. So that's where I stand on that."
Evans is not representative of all his fellow pros. Many remain unhappy with the amount of tennis they are asked to play across a long season.
Carlos Alcaraz was not the busiest player on the circuit in 2024
Carlos Alcaraz played 62 matches in the 2024 season, which only made him the 15th busiest player on the Tour. Alexander Zverev played the most matches over the year, with 83. Jannik Sinner, the World No. 1, played 76. In fifth place was Casper Ruud, who felt his 69 matches were too many.
After losing early at Roland Garros this year, Ruud told his post-match press conference, as reported by the BBC:
"You feel like you lose a lot if you don't show up and play - both economically, points-wise, rankings-wise and opportunity-wise. Players' careers are going to get shorter because they're going to burn out mentally. There is just too much tennis."
The debate will rage on. Dan Evans is coming to the end of a long career, and the game has changed unrecognizably from when he started as a young professional.
