Jannik Sinner joins chorus of stars to criticise 12-day Masters 1000 format

Ewan West 18 Aug 2025 11:24 AM

Jannik Sinner in an interview

Jannik Sinner joined the chorus of players to raise criticisms of the Masters 1000 format expansion after reaching the final of the 2025 Cincinnati Open.

The ongoing Cincinnati Open is one of seven Masters tournaments that the ATP Tour has lengthened to two weeks (12 days), along with Indian Wells, Miami, Rome, Canada, Cincinnati and Shanghai. The singles draws at these events now feature 96 players.

Monte Carlo and Paris are the only tournaments in the Masters 1000 category that have retained the traditional single-week, 56-player format.

Prior to the changes — which were introduced as part of ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi’s OneVision plan — seven of the nine Masters events were held over a single week, with Indian Wells and Miami each lasting 10 days.

A host of players, including Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev and Jack Draper, have questioned the increased demands that the longer Masters tournaments bring.

In addition, many tennis fans have argued the 12-day format has provided an inferior spectacle.

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After beating Terence Atmane to progress to the Cincinnati Masters final, Sinner expressed his preference for one-week Masters tournaments.

“It’s a question that’s quite irrelevant now to answer because we are in that position,” the world No 1 said in his press conference.

“My personal view, I love the one-week events. I love it when you see that the tournament in Monaco, for example, you have for Monte Carlo, you have this one-week event, and you have the first-round matches, which are incredibly good. And if one good seeded-player loses, the next match is an incredible match still, and you have the quarter-finals and you know exactly when you buy the tickets.

“You have the quarter-finals and then you have the semi-final, which is Saturday, and then you have finally Sunday. And now I lost a little bit of the view of when does actually a finalist [play], because it used to be always Sunday.

“Now, here [in Cincinnati] it’s Monday. In Toronto, it’s Wednesday or Thursday. So it’s difficult even for us players. We lose a little bit of the days of the week, I would say.”

The Italian will face world No 2 Alcaraz in the Cincinnati championship match.