The ATP circuit has gone completely crazy

Jose Morón | 13 Oct 2025 | 13.14

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What has happened this week in Shanghai is a good example of how the circuit is currently. In a tournament where Carlos Alcaraz couldn't play and where Jannik Sinner "caught a cold," we saw a Novak Djokovic deal with his own body, in addition to his opponent. The Serbian has been battling against the passage of time for a year and a half, trying to avoid the inevitable.

At 38 springs, Nole can no longer compete for several matches without feeling a new ache and without leaving a trail of suffering in his eagerness to continue stretching his career. It says a lot about the state of the circuit that a Djokovic at 30% can repeat finals and overcome many rivals along the way.

In this scenario, one could expect more from the second or third tier, and we find a Zverev mired in excuses for why he doesn't win, as if the world were against him, without self-criticism or questioning if he is doing everything he can to avoid the current situation.

Also, with a Fritz who capitalized better than anyone on Alcaraz's slump in the summer of 2024, but who is as inconsistent as he is cold. A Shelton whose body is a time bomb. A De Miñaur who can't seem to uncork the bottle. A Musetti who strays away from clay courts. A Draper whose body is his greatest enemy. A Rune whose ship has long been lost. A Ruud who is in the same position as Musetti. An Auger-Aliassime who showed in Shanghai his usual face, not the one in New York. A Medvedev who tries to break walls with cannon shots to return to his former self. A Rublev who lost his consistency label a while ago or a Mensik who beyond Miami doesn't show readiness to be a third party in discord and a Fonseca still too green.

With this panorama, in Shanghai we had to live through one of the craziest stories in this sport. Two men who had never even come close, found themselves in a historic final. In a circuit where the second and third tier are devastated, exhausted, and completely broken physically or mentally, Rinderknech and Vacherot took advantage to secure a spot where fans were expecting someone else and show us that current tennis has become completely unpredictable, beyond Carlitos or Sinner.

The Frenchman, a player more suited to very fast courts, prevailed in the slowest Shanghai of recent years, and lost in the final against his cousin, who had only won a couple of matches at the M1000 level, because he was invited in Monte Carlo, and a Grand Slam match, in Roland Garros. With that background, who could have imagined he would be able to win a tournament like this.

The reasons behind the decline of Alcaraz and Sinner's followers

There are several reasons that explain all this. On the one hand, we have a circuit that is too demanding, forcing the Top players to participate in a certain number of tournaments and, in addition, extending the tours by an extra week for each Masters 1000. This means that many arrive exhausted at the end of the year and mentally burnt out, with most playing with discomfort or injuries, leading to surprises in the latter part of the season.

With more matches in play, we must add the duration of the games, lengthened by the slowness of the courts in many tournaments and a ball that has become harder and harder to move. If we add to this an increase in global temperatures on Earth, we have the perfect mix for the players to reach their limits both physically and mentally in many tournaments.

It is also evident that the level between the Top 50 and the Top 200 has risen significantly compared to 25 or 30 years ago. Previously, it was very rare to see the world No. 180 stand up to a Top 10 or Top 20. Nowadays, there are already two players outside the Top 100 who reach the semifinals of a Masters 1000, coming from the qualifying rounds, with one of them even winning a tournament like that in Shanghai.

Along with this improvement in the lower class, there has been a decline in the level between the Top 4-5 and the Top 20. Unlike the 2000s, when there was a second or third class of high level, with Del Potro, Wawrinka, Murray, Berdych, Tsonga, Nalbandian, Davydenko, Ferrer, Ferrero, Soderling, and others, many of whom played Grand Slam finals and competed head-to-head with the Big 3, we are far from that nowadays.

Many of these youngsters, like Zverev, Tsitsipas, or Medvedev, were waiting for the Big 3 to retire to win Grand Slams, thinking they had it all figured out, and it took a generation like Alcaraz and Sinner to show them how stagnant they were.

There are very, very few from the Top ranking for the general public to gladly pay for a ticket. Not only due to the lack of tennis appeal, in a current tennis scenario where most play alike, but also due to the lack of attractive personalities or poor charisma. This does not help, as it takes away excitement in the initial rounds, knowing that neither Alcaraz nor Sinner will be challenged, and in weeks like Shanghai, their absences open up the field so much that a large part of the fans disconnect, waiting for the return of the world's top two.

Everything that was criticized about the WTA in its day, for the lack of attractive personalities, level of play, and lack of consistency, where a player would win a big tournament one week and then disappear, is precisely what is happening now to that second and third tier of the men's circuit, and that leaves us concerned about a “cold” from Alcaraz and Sinner.

Just imagining that a long absence of both, due to injury or any other reason, would leave us with a circuit where we would see the same as we saw last week in Shanghai, leaves us unsettled. For tennis to enjoy excellent health, we not only need a Carlos-Jannik rivalry but also a series of players who add competitiveness to the circuit.

Nadal and Federer spent seven long years sharing all the Grand Slams. Between 2004 and 2010, the Spaniard and the Swiss won 24 of those 28 major titles. Only Gaudio, Del Potro, Safin, and Djokovic managed to grab something in the meantime. So far, we have had two years where Alcaraz and Sinner have taken it all. They see the current state of the circuit with joy, knowing that if things continue this way, they will be able to stack up major wins one after another until someone emerges to challenge everything, as Nole did back in the day.

Meanwhile, we will have to wait and see if Alcaraz and Sinner leave room for others, as happened last week in Shanghai, and if Vacherot's victory stings a little in the pride of those who should step up in the absence of the world's top two. Some may have enjoyed what took place in China last week, while others may have turned off the TV until the next tournament. It's a matter of taste, but tennis will benefit if there are players willing to step up to compete for everything.