The hectic tennis schedule has long been a point of contention among tennis players. But the recent moment that lit the fuse came in September 2024, when a visibly exhausted Carlos Alcaraz declared in Beijing, “The schedule is going to kill us.” Now, after months of mounting tension and escalating player pushback, the ATP has officially responded.

On Thursday, the organization announced a significant move to restructure the men’s tour. The core of it tackles the very issue Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, and other ATP stars have warned about: player burnout.

The biggest shift? The number of mandatory tournaments has been reduced. Players will now only have to compete in four ATP 500 events per season instead of five, easing the scheduling pressure on Top 30 athletes who have been juggling four Grand Slams, nine Masters 1000 events, and the ATP Finals (if qualified).

Additionally, the ATP confirmed that the maximum number of tournaments contributing to ranking points will drop from 19 to 18, giving players more breathing room to rest without falling behind. A move, it said, was designed “to create more scheduling flexibility.”

Beyond easing the calendar, the ATP has also introduced several new policies aimed at supporting players’ personal lives and overall well-being. For example, players who withdraw from a tournament due to the birth or adoption of a child will retain the ranking points they’ve already earned.

This prevents scenarios where new parents scramble to add tournaments late in the season to keep their standings.

The ATP has also confirmed that video review technology will be expanded to ATP 500 events in 2026 and ATP 250 tournaments in 2027. Other than that, in response to increasingly extreme temperatures—especially during summer hard-court swings—the ATP will implement standardized protocols (a new Heat Rule) to suspend or modify play when conditions become unsafe.

These measures signal a shift toward modernization and safety, concepts that players have long called for. But the call for a change in the tennis schedule isn’t just restricted to the ATP.

Amid the ATP’s groundbreaking move, Aryna Sabalenka calls out “insane” WTA rule

For months, the global tennis calendar has felt like a pressure cooker ready to burst. As the ATP finally announced sweeping changes to reduce mandatory events and ease player burnout, the spotlight instantly shifted to the WTA.

In November, Polish star Iga Swiatek gave a hint about missing two mandatory tournaments in 2026 simply because she feels it will benefit her well-being and tennis:

“I would like to try missing maybe two tournaments—maybe the ones I feel I haven’t been playing well at anyway—just spending this time on grinding and getting the technique better. I think it will help me also play a little bit better under stress, because my body will remember the proper movements and what it learned during this practice time.”

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Now, the current world number one has joined the Pole. Sabalenka and Swiatek faced point deductions in 2025 for not fulfilling the WTA 500 requirement. Speaking more on that, she added:

“Well, the season is definitely insane, and that’s not good for all of us, as you see so many players getting injured, and also the balls are quite heavy, so it’s a lot, yeah, a lot of struggle for all of us. The rules are quite tricky with mandatory events, but I’m still doing that, like, I’m skipping a couple of events in order to protect my body, because I struggled a lot last season,” said Sabalenka.

She acknowledged that she plans to skip events again this season, even if the WTA fines her by the year’s end. “It’s really tricky, and I think that’s insane what they do. I think they just follow their interests, but they’re not focusing on protecting all of us.”

The ATP has already made its move. Now it’ll be interesting to see if Aryna Sabalenka’s latest comments could spark the move that the WTA can no longer ignore.