Yevgeny Kafelnikov didn't appear to be impressed with Tim Henman's "irrelevant tennis" take as the former Russian two-time Grand Slam champion suggests the only irrelevant thing in the calendar are "exhibitions" that pay major money.
As usual, when the tennis season is coming to an end players start to more openly speak out against the schedule. In most cases, the same things are being said as players believe it is "too demanding" - they "do not have time to rest" - and some of them also blame the schedule for frequent injuries that are happening across the ATP and WTA Tour.
On Sky Sports, former six-time Grand Slam semifinalist suggested that there are periods of the year when "irrelevant tennis" is being played.
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"For me, there is too much irrelavant tennis at time in the calendar. Historically on the ATP Tour there have been 12 tournaments in four weeks in February and what does that mean when you have Jannik Sinner here, Carlos Alcaraz there, Alexander Zverev here and Novak Djokovic there?" Henman stated on Sky Sports.
Kafelnikov: You mean there are too many irrelevant exhibition tournaments with a lot of money?
Reacting to Henman's comments, former world No. 1 Kafelnikov wrote on X: "You mean, 'There is too much irrelevant exhibition tennis tournaments with lot of money, which has a negative affect on calendar."
Carlos Alcaraz is one of the loudest critics of the ATP calendar. And when the world No. 1 went to Saudi Arabia for a star-studded Six Kings Slam exhibition, the Spaniard received criticism and backlash. However, the six-time Grand Slam champion defended his decision by stating that it was a completely different compared to the Tour and much more less demanding.
