Rise of the ‘mini-slams’ cranks up demands on tired tennis players

H ours after successfully completing her first match in Madrid this year, Daria Kasatkina, the highest-ranked women’s player from Russia, stood in the corridors of La Caja Mágica as she described how she was managing the mental fatigue that had built after years of being a hamster in the ever-revolving wheel of professional tennis.

A more topical question followed: she was asked how big tournaments lengthening by a week has affected those feelings. “It affects the payment of the hamster,” she said, laughing. “Poor hamster has to work more for the same money. Poor hamster.”

Madrid has hosted the 1000 tournaments for the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in its southern barrios since 2009 but this year everything changed. For the first time in its history, the Madrid Open has become a two-week event – 12 days of main-draw play preceded by two qualifying days, its singles draws expanding from 56 players to 96, copying the successful format of the Indian Wells and Miami events.

Its expansion reflects tennis’s arrival at a tipping point. In 2020, Andrea Gaudenzi, a former player, was voted the new chief executive of the ATP, which runs the men’s tour. Gaudenzi assumed the position with ambitious plans to transform the landscape. He pointed to tennis’s status as the fourth most popular sport around the world and the potential that, due to its fractious nature, it has yet to realise.

The primary phase of ATP’s strategic plan includes expanding prize money with the pledge of a yearly increase, a new profit-sharing ethos between ATP players and tournaments and greater cooperation between the events. For both players and fans, however, the most obvious shift has been the attempt