By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Thursday, November 2, 2023
Schedule makers squeezed his recovery time. Jannik Sinner checked out Paris this week.
World No. 4 Sinner has withdrawn from the Rolex Paris Masters due to fatigue, ceding a walkover to Alex de Minaur, after facing an inexplicable schedule.
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Vienna champion Sinner completed his three-set win over Mackenzie McDonald at 2:37 a.m. Paris time this morning. Rather than schedule the Sinner vs. de Minaur round-of-16 match as part of the evening schedule, as logic would dictate, Sinner was scheduled fourth on Court Central, not before 5 p.m. local time.
Given less than 15 hours turnaround time, Sinner opted on.
The tournament's scheduling decision drew outrage from some players, including Casper Ruud, who called out the ATP and the inequity as "a joke."
"Bravo @atptour 👏👏 way to help one of the best players in the world recover and be as ready as possible when he finished his previous match at 2:37 am this morning👍👍 14,5 hours to recover.. what a joke🤦" Ruud posted on social media.
Darren Cahill, Sinner's coach, posted Ruud's comments on social media.
The fourth-seeded Sinner arrived in Paris having won two of the last three tournaments he entered—Beijing and Vienna—and understandably doesn't want to risk injury ahead of the ATP Finals starting November 12th in Turin where he will be playing before home fans in Italy.
No. 13-seeded de Minaur advances via walkover into a quarterfinal clash vs. Andrey Rublev.
The fifth-seeded Rublev crushed Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3, 6-3 and has not dropped a set en route to the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, some players, coaches, media and fans are questioning the logic behind this week's Rolex Paris Masters scheduled that also saw Dominic Thiem toiling into the early morning to edge Stan Wawrinka.
Photo credit: Erste Bank Open Facebook