Taylor Fritz has revealed that he disagrees with players being criticised for playing exhibition events despite criticising the tennis calendar.
Scheduling within tennis has been under the microscope in recent months, with several leading players critical of how lengthy and demanding the season can be.
ATP stars Alexander Zverev, Jannik Sinner, and Carlos Alcaraz have all spoken out on the controversy recently, while WTA world No 1 Iga Swiatek has been a frequent critic of the tennis calendar.
Alcaraz in particular has faced some criticism for his comments, with the world No 3 forced to defend his decision to play multiple exhibition events amid his criticism of the ATP.
Among those to have waded into the debate recently is former ATP star John Millman, who claimed on Twitter/X that shortening the calendar was a “hard sell” if players continued to play multiple exhibition events.
“There’s always been calls to have a smaller tournament schedule but it’s a hard sell when in off weeks players chase $$ exhibitions,” said the Australian.
“Then you factor in those playing on future and challenger tour, who might need those “off weeks” to play and make the little money they can.”
In response to Millman’s post, world No 7 Fritz expressed his view that exhibitions were not in any way equivalent to playing a full ATP or WTA event.
He wrote: “I agree that it’s tough for the tour to shorten the schedule when players will just play Exos to fill the time, and I’ve seen a lot of people criticizing some of the players asking for a shorter season because they go and play Exos.
“I don’t understand that part of the argument, because playing an exo vs a tour event aren’t comparable to each other in terms of burn out — physically and especially mentally.
“A tour event can be 5+ days of playing all out and mentally being dialled in on all things on and off court, VS an exo you show up, have some fun and entertain for a match or two. You don’t have to all out push your body and there is absolutely 0 mental fatigue or stress.
“In a lot of ways an exo is a lot like a rest week and shouldn’t be compared 1:1 with a tour event. I don’t expect non players to fully comprehend what I mean by this because it’s tough to judge the mental and physical fatigue that playing tour weeks entails if you not a part of it, but I would fully expect players to understand what I mean by this.”
In response, former world No 33 Millman revealed that he did not disagree with Fritz’s view, but believed that playing exhibitions made complaints a “hard sell”.
He added: “Yeah I agree with this. I have no problem with players looking to play exhibitions, especially given the limited time an athlete has to capitalise their wealth. I think it’s up to the tour to financially be able strong enough where players aren’t incentivised to chase exo’s.
“I do think though it’s a tough sell optics wise when the talk is the season is too long.”
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