Former world No 1 hits back at Tim Henman’s ‘irrelevant’ comment about tennis schedule

Yevgeny Kafelnikov has taken aim at the increase in “irrelevant exhibition” events on the tennis calendar as the debate about the lengthy season continues.

A host of top tennis players have complained about the number of tournaments on the calendar in the past few years with most of them unhappy with the amount of mandatory events they are forced to play on the ATP and WTA Tours.

The likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Jack Draper, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff have been pretty vocal about the issue, but those in charge have so far defended the schedules.

Following an interview with ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi, former British No 1 Tim Henman explained why he feels changes have to be made as he told Sky Sports Tennis: “For me there is too much irrelevant tennis at times in the calendar. When they talk about February, historically on the ATP Tour there have been 12 tournaments in four weeks in February and what does that mean when you have Jannik Sinner here, Carlos Alcaraz there, Alexander Zverev here and Novak Djokovic there?

“It doesn’t provide a clear narrative for the fan so certain weeks where there is no tennis is a good thing for everybody. It gives the players an opportunity to rest and it gives fans the chance to build the excitement about the next event on the calendar.

“F1 is pretty easy to follow. Every couple of weekends there is a race and after 20-odd races you add up the points. You then have gaps in between.

“I think we have great assets in tennis, led by the four Grand Slams. The Masters 1000 events are good concepts to get the best players but I think they should be eight or nine days, not 12. Then you can build that product.”

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However, two-time Grand Slam winner Kafelnikov sniped back on social media as he feels the increase in exhibition events is the real reason for the congested calendar.

“You mean ‘there is too much irrelevant exhibition tennis tournaments with lot of money, which has negative affect on calendar’,Tim?” he asked on X.

Several star players will be involved in exhibition events ahead of the off-season with world No 1 Alcaraz set to feature in two events in the United States in early December, while he will also take on Jannik Sinner in South Korea before next year’s Australian Open.

Draper and Jakub Mensik will also play at various events while on the WTA side, world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula will be in action before they officially get their 2026 season underway.

It is not the first time that Kafelnikov has hit out at those complaining as he slammed Swiatek in 2024.

“What can I say? I’ve been kind of an advocate in saying that we shouldn’t, I don’t know… be pushing and pushing for us to play more,” the Pole told Sky Sports Tennis last August.

“Obviously it is not our decision, but for sure I think we have too many tournaments in the season. It’s not going to end well.”

But the Russian was unimpressed as he wrote: “Is someone pushing you to play??? All you fricking do is complain!!

“I’ll tell you what you deserve! You deserve to get paid a lot less than you do now!! How about that??”