Alexander Zverev says sanctions won’t stop top stars from skipping Masters
World No 2 says players like Novak Djokovic have enough money to bypass sanctions
World No 2 Alexander Zverev has never been one to mince words. Ever since the French Open champion won his first Grand Slam earlier in May, the German has been quite vocal about a host of issues and on Sunday, hit out at the way the Masters 1000 events are held, saying the likes of Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic skipping the ATP Montreal Masters comes as no surprise to him.
While Canadian officials have called for financial and other player sanctions over the series of late withdrawals from the first of two major events prior to the August 31 start of the US Open, Zverev said throwing dollars at the problem will make zero difference to any of the trio of elite multimillionaires.
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“It’s not rocket science,” the Wimbledon runner-up said. “We get bonuses at the end of the year if we play all nine Masters.
“You think Novak will care if he gets a bigger bonus? I think the guy has – if I would have to guess, the guy is north of 400 million (dollars) in his bank account.
“I’m not sure he would care about 50,000 more or less.”
Zverev said that also applied to ranking level for the 39-year-old Serb, who owns 24 Grand Slam singles titles and has career prize money earnings alone approaching $200 million.
“I don’t think he cares about his ranking either. I honestly don’t think so,” Zverev added of Djokovic, currently ranked number five in the world.
Zverev said weary players would be more likely to be tempted back if the Masters events that have swelled to 11, 12 or even 13 days were scaled back to a week.
“If you’re forcing us to be away for two and a half, three weeks during Grand Slams and the same then goes for Masters events, you can’t force us to play. Sorry, that’s nonsense.
“I think (the pullouts) are a result of the two-week Masters event. I think it’s just too long for some players, too much before the US Open,” Zverev said.
“I used to play more 500 events, 250 events when the Masters were shorter, but now I don’t do that anymore just because of time spent away and time spent on tournaments.”
The 29-year-old said that he and his team also seriously considered bypassing Canada this year.
“We had a thought also of maybe skipping Montreal, but then we decided to play it.
“I need to play matches. I need to play tournaments.
“I don’t think maybe I’ll play my best tennis here, but the result of playing here, I think I’ll play better in Cincinnati and then hopefully my best tennis in New York.”
Zverev leads the tournament field, with Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime seeded second ahead of Australian Alex de Minaur, Daniil Medvedev and title holder Ben Shelton.
